UPROOTED: The Massive Destruction of The Salt Lake City Hurricane

Tuesday, September 8 will go down as one of the biggest natural disasters in Salt Lake City, when Hurricane-force winds blew up to 100 mph.

Richard Markosian

September 14, 2020

Tuesday, September 8 will go down as one of the biggest natural disasters in Salt Lake City, when Hurricane-force winds blew up to 100 mph.

Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall declared the city in a state of emergency. Later the governor Gary Herbert declared Utah in a state of emergency as well.

Hundreds of trees fell over onto powerlines causing power outages. Over 300,000 residents were without power by Tuesday afternoon. Even four days later 100,000 were still without power.

But the big and long-term effect was the uprooting of hundreds of trees. Many were some of Salt Lake’s tallest trees. Several of the largest Cottonwood trees in Liberty Park are left leaning, cracked, or completely uprooted.

WATCH the Utah Stories “Hidden Utah” Show to see the devastating images.

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hurricane, natural disaster, Salt Lake City

Richard Markosian

I am a story teller and journalist. I have a passion for farmers, local craftspeople, and folks who aspire to create, build and grow their business in the local marketplace. Why local? By supporting locally-owned businesses we create more opportunity for entrepreneurs, and we claim our sovereignty to shape our communities how we want to see them. I aspire to build Utah Stories Magazine into a household Utah name, and assist Utah businesses and makers with marketing. On the journalism side of things my passion is investigative journalism that offers true insight into issues. I believe strongly in the forth estate: strong, meaningful, insightful journalism is essential to a free market Democracy.