Colorado is a notoriously dry place; just read my blog for
the last couple of years and you will see the endless monotony of fires,
drought and dryness.
The last 'flood' I
remember was in the early 90's (maybe 1993?) when the river a block behind our
house almost touched the bridge.
On Wednesday
September 11, 2013- that all changed.
I was at a scripture study group at the church from 7-8pm and
was inside and unaware that it had started to rain. Ben came to the church and interrupted our
group at 7:45 to tell everyone to go home because the parking lot and roads
were flooding. That night Ben went to
the Newson's house and dug trenches to re-route the water flooding their
basement untill almost midnight. The
next morning, it was still raining, he went to work but was being bombarded
with flood reports (from the Elder's Quorum) and around town. His work sent everyone home in the early
afternoon to work from home until further notice (his office was closed for
days) and Ben went to help some more people in our ward with basement
flooding. (It took him over an hour to
get home because of road closures and weather conditions.)
All day Thursday Elizabeth and I stayed home (who wants to
go out in the rain) and called people making sure their houses weren't flooding
and they were okay. Yet, still at this
point we did not know the full magnitude of what was happening. Friday morning the rain, where we lived,
stopped for a short time but we could still hear rushing water. Curious we went outside and found that the
farm (across the street from us) was completely flooded and full of rushing
water (the small creek- that I didn't even know was there- had filled and
flooded over). The debris was three feet
up in the fences and trees and the road was completely demolished and washed
out by the water. I know started to
realize the intensity of this storm.
We learned that Longmont was really bad but for days the
roads were all closed and we could not get in to help. Mom and Dad's house was
fine but the house we grew up in flooded (from the small river a block away)
and there was a lot of flooding in their ward.
Lyons was gone, washed down the river, and most mountain towns were left
helpless because the roads were all washed away. River's rerouted and destroyed neighborhoods
miles from the original rivers. People
we left stranded and homeless.
I am shocked at the amount and magnitude of damage that
water can cause. Now, weeks later, looking at the damage and
the still ongoing repairs I am stunned. I
am grateful that we were able to go and do so much service (more on that to
come) and help people through this horrible and unexpected disaster.
Here is some news on the floods:
- The 9.08 inches that fell on Sept. 12 was an all-time
single-day record, nearly doubling the previous record of 4.80
inches set on July 31, 1919.
- Between Monday and Friday (Sept 9-13) about 15 inches fell (There has been
more rainfall in the three days than over a typical six month period). The
records are even more extreme when you consider that September is normally one
of the drier months in Colorado. Typically, Boulder gets about 1.5 inches of
rain in September. The record before now was 5.5 inches, set in 1940.
Boulder has already set a
record for the most yearly rainfall
(30.13 inches), and there are 3-1/2 months remaining in the year.
- Rainfall totals across Boulder area were enough to qualify it as a 1 in
1,000 year event. This is a 0.1% chance
of occurring in any given year.
“This
doesn’t mean that such a rainfall would literally be expected once every
thousand years, like clockwork,”
writes Bob
Henson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Rather,
it’s a statement of probability: a 1000-year rainfall has a 0.1% chance of
occurring in any given year.”
-
This rare event has lead people,
including the National Weather Service, to label the storm as
“Biblical.” It may seem strange that a
scientific organization dedicated to climate research would use such a label,
but there are reasons for this. The Bible actually contains many references to
storms and severe weather conditions symbolizing events out of
our control.
- Statewide,
12,118 people are under mandatory
evacuation orders. The biggest airlift operation since hurricane
Katrina (2005) helped evacuate more than 1,000 residents in remote mountain
towns that had been completely cut off due to washed-out roads. Fourteen
shelters are currently operating, housing nearly 500 people. There are at least
six confirmed fatalities due to the flood, and two more people in
Larimer County are missing and presumed
dead.
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| Peak to Peak Highway |
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| Peak to Peak Highway |
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| Lefthand Canyon |
- Initial figures from the Colorado Office of Emergency Management
say that 1,502 residential structures were destroyed and 17,494 were damaged.
Those totals are almost certain to rise.
At least 50 bridges in the state are severely damaged or
destroyed with 200 miles of roads
impacted by the flooding. Federal officials have put preliminary
estimates on the cost of repairing infrastructure at $40 million for roads and
$112 million for bridges.
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| Lyons, CO |
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| Neighborhood in Longmont | |
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9/14/13- For the first time since the harrowing floods began Wednesday,
Colorado got its first broad view of the
devastation. Floodwaters have affected parts of a 4,500-square-mile
(11,655-square-kilometer) area — an area the size of the
U.S. state of Connecticut.
