The weather event on Aug. 27 resulted in a slew of mud that came barreling down the mountain, which overwhelmed the safety measures that were put in place to stop debris flows from the burn scar and spilled into a meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the city said.

The rainfall, which usually wouldn’t be problematic, was exacerbated by the lack of vegetation due to the burn scar, according to Tim Thompson with GeoStrata Engineering and Geosciences. On Friday, Thompson and Provo City leaders detailed their preliminary findings on the impact of the burn scar and subsequent mudslide.

Provo officials stated in a media release Thursday that 0.7-0.8 inches of rain dropped over the Buckley Draw Fire burn scar in 30 minutes.

The intense downpour led to a significant amount of mud and debris flow coming off the mountain

When compared to a similar instance in 2003, Thompson said the recent event had a much larger volume of sediment.

“We think that maybe as much as 15 acre-feet came out of that canyon (during) this event, as opposed to a half an acre-foot or so in 2003,” he said.

Shane Ylagan, a soil scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, described the storm as a one in 10-year weather event. He also noted the short window of time between when the fire started on Aug. 17 and the mudslide.

“When it (rained) and hit the ground within the fire burn scar, it acted as a 25-year event because of the post fire conditions and not allowing for the water to be quickly infiltrated,” he said.

The city said it has been working with a developer who owns property near the church to make improvements to a nearby debris channel that was installed in 2003.

However, a fencing system that was in place at the time to mitigate debris flows has since been removed.

Provo Public Works Director Gordon Haight said while the debris channel didn’t completely prevent the mudslide’s impact on the church, the fences would not have been helpful either.

“While it was better than what was there in 2003 with the fencing, it still was not enough to stop the church from getting flooded,” he said. “But it did reduce some of the material that actually hit the church.”

Haight said the city is gearing up to extend the debris channel by 1,200 feet and build an additional basin to handle similar storms — an effort that Mayor Michelle Kaufusi said was in motion even before the recent mudslide.

She said conversations between her, the public works department and city engineers began immediately after the Buckley Draw Fire sparked about how to protect homes and property in the area should a rainstorm occur.

“There wasn’t even more than four hours into the fire that Sunday evening where we weren’t having the discussions of what’s next? How do we do this?” she said. “We are aware of potential and possibilities. The one thing that is really tricky … honestly is mother nature. She’s the boss.”

Haight said construction work to extend the debris channel is slated to begin Sept. 15, and is expected to take about two months to complete.