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Massive flood destroys Idaho Falls business basement; vandals to blame

1,126 views · Published 31 August 2015 · 1:34 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: East Idaho News · 2015 · News & Politics

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IDAHO FALLS – Vandals are being blamed for a massive flood that destroyed the basement of a medical clinic early Monday morning.

Tens of thousands of gallons of water from a nearby canal poured into the Idaho Food and Ankle Center on Elk Creek Drive around midnight.  At one point, the water filled the basement and inched toward the top of the stairs.

“The force of the water was so great it literally burst the deadbolts and all the locks on the basement doors,” Dr. Kylin Kovac said.  “There was a waterfall down the back staircase.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Kovac learned there was a problem when the alarm at his medical practice went off.

Police responded and when Kovac arrived, the basement of his office he’s worked years to build was ruined.

“It’s certainly disheartening,” Kovac said, as he watched crews clean up the mess.  “There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into establishing a medical practice and to have it all wiped away is hard.”

Idaho Falls Police are investigating the incident as a vandalism. They believe someone or a group of people tampered with the canal headgate near the business.  That led to water pooling in the canal, eventually breaking over the bank and pouring out into the medical practice.

Some nearby yards were flooded but nothing as major as the damage the Idaho Foot and Ankle Center received.

Meanwhile, a nearby medical office is offering Kovac space to see his patients today as Kovac picks up the pieces. 

“We’ll keep going and do whatever we need to go to go forward,” Kovac says.

Investigators are asking anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious along the canal to contact them.

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