Just thought I’d share some of the more interesting flood pictures with you guys. None of these photos are mine.
Coal Creek
Hwy 7 Allens Park
Apple Valley
Spring Valley Rd, Boulder
South St. Vrain
Big Thompson
Lyons
Damn man, that’s sad.
I’m about to hop a plane back to Salt Lake. I hear it’s been raining and flash-flooding in certain areas of Utah, but nothing like that.
Here’s to wishing the best for Colorado’s population. Stay safe guys.
So for those not familiar, Colorado is generally a pretty dry state. 10-15 years ago, an afternoon shower was pretty normal for most days in the summer. But we are talking 15 minutes to an 1 hour tops. It rained EVERY DAY last week at rates of something like 2-4 inches per hour. I heard somewhere that in one or two days, we got the same amount of rain in 1-2 days as we usually get in 6 months. I know there are areas that probably get a lot of rain where this amount isn’t a big deal, but we’re usually pretty dry on the leeward side of the divide, and especially the last 15 years or so, that when this week of rains came, we had a lot of trouble. A couple people have died and a lot are missing (kids getting washed away in rivers while parents were taking pictures, etc). There must be 100 other pictures/videos that are just as, if not more dramatic than these.
The rain has stopped and stuff is calming down now, kind of. At least one whole town (Lyon’s CO) is/was completely blocked off and no one could get in for at least three days. That means no food for three days with no power, and the natural gas was shut off. The National Guard was flying in. In Evans, CO, the water treatment plant is completely shut down with an ETA of 10 days. That means 10 days of NO water, and you can’t even flush or put anything down your drains. One acquaintance has a wife and 5 little girls in his family. People who don’t prepare for this stuff are freaking out and in a bad spot right now. Honestly, who prepares for floods in Colorado? People laugh if you tell them you have drinking water set aside, but this isn’t even the first time just this year that whole towns have had water issues and been on boil alerts at the very least. Imagine what you’d do with no city water for 10 days, especially if you couldn’t even leave towns due to road closures surrounding you. Something to think about.
not estes park!
Still raining, still flooding. I thought it was going to be over as it was supposed to be dry this weekend according to the forecast earlier in the week. Over 300 people are unaccounted for in Boulder, CO alone. I’ll put up some more pictures.
Here is regular level at this creek.
Here is the level during spring runoff:
Here it is on 09/13/13:
Coal Creek Rail Line:
My sister’s family lives in Arvada. Not in danger but still close by. They live near a river that did rise and only their shed collapsed. I hope it doesn’t get more worse!
damn!!!
great googly mooogly…
Hope all is well up there Stu…
thats sad about those missing ,hope everything works out over there
The issue now is that some places, like Estes Park, still have a lot of damage, and most of the roads in are impassable. So when it starts snowing (last week actually), any repairs are going to be on hold for the next six months. I think at least one town was evacuated because they told the residents that there would be no access to the town, thus no services, for the next 9 months. Some of the residents are set-up to take care of themselves for long periods and didn’t leave.