Three-Inch Anvil

 

Autumn in 1982 was chilly and damp in these parts; winter was the same. The heavy snowpack was slow to melt next spring, until sudden warm temperatures brought all that melted snow down at once. The result was massive flooding. City Creek, which ran mostly under Salt Lake City, broke free and was channeled down State Street. Bishops called off church meetings so their congregations could fill sandbags. The Great Salt Lake rose, swallowing highways, railroads and businesses. The state spent $60 million building huge pumps to spew the excess water out to the west desert. By the time the pumps were operational, the lake had already begun to recede. They only ran between the spring of 1987 and the summer of 1989. In the more than three decades since then, those big pumps have sat high and dry, rusting away. It’s something to think about the next time you feel doing ANYTHING must be better than doing nothing.