Wall of water crashes through family’s house during “flood of the century”

OREM, Utah (KSTU) – The city of Orem, Utah, is calling this week’s heavy rains a “flood of the century.”

The families whose homes were flooded with water are still struggling with the clean-up effort.

People who have lived in the area for decades said they had never experienced weather like Tuesday’s.

In the Redd family’s basement, fans of all shapes and sizes run non-stop, doing everything they can to dry out the ground floor after every rainstorm.

“The worst part was the glass, hail and debris. I just tried to filter them out and push the water out,” said Whitney Redd.

Redd’s in-laws were among the many homeowners in Orem affected by the flooding, which the city called a historic flood.

“It was just like, ‘Oh, this is fun. This is new,’ and then it just started pouring until it looked like a river was running down our driveway,” Redd recalls.

They had to leave immediately to get everything they could to higher ground, but the rain was coming too quickly.

“My husband comes down and says, ‘It’s going down too fast. There’s no way we can get this all out. Get out of the room. Get out of the room,'” Redd recalls.

Redd filmed the leaky window until the water broke through.

“Surreal, just surreal, so much water coming in,” Redd added. “We were at Niagara Falls recently and it was the same at home.”

Redd says there was about two feet of water in the room; the basement had been renovated just two months ago due to a sewage backup.

“Everyone is safe,” Redd said. “I think it was time for everyone to be safe. It’s just a house. It really sucks, but it’s just a house.”

More rain is forecast for this weekend, so the Redds have stocked up on sandbags and plan to do everything they can to prevent any further water intrusion.

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