Colorado is Closed

[TOMAHAWK9521]

Well, TR certainly has my complete attention with the start of his latest thread. What was it? The "Oh Sh*t!!" thread? That pretty much sums up where I might be headed if this rain continues.

I woke up to everyone on the radio yammering hysterically about the rain and flash flooding someplace else in the state and thought, "Damn, that sucks for those poor bastards." Then I began driving out of my neighborhood to head down to Denver for school. I got to the end of the street to find we now have a new creek to go along with the name of our housing development. "No Name Creek".

This swift flowing stream is about a block to the south of my house and cuts along the west side of the development where it has already washed out part of another street roughly 1 block to my west. There are two moderately sized reservoirs (ponds) nearby, one a couple hundred meters to the north, and the other about 800m to the south. With this incessant rain, I may be in for owning a riverside home. Unfortunately, some of my neighbors now do.

I returned home to move all my high value toys out of the basement and up onto the second floor. Luckily there is no imminent threat of my house actually going under water so I had plenty of time to get them all upstairs. Still, that was a time-consuming pain in the ass. I may have to rethink keeping my stuff locked up in the basement while living in a potential flood plain.

Having completed moving the irreplaceable stuff, I went out to look around the neighborhood. Some of my neighbors drove by and said we'd been ordered to evacuate. They looked panicked and had only the clothes on their backs. I was stunned by their level of panic. Okay, so the retaining walls of those two aforementioned bodies of water might actually fail, (as remote a possibility as that may be) but I would think people would do more than just get into their cars and haul ass. It's not like we are living below the Glenn Canyon Damn.

While out taking pictures, another neighbor said they got the initial evac call but were later told to hold where they were at because our area was now cut off. Understand, we aren't dealing with the conditions like the folks up in Lyons or Estes Park. There are still routes out of here but they are slow going due to the high waters washing parts of the road out. And the last I heard, Lyons was completely isolated and the only way in is by RW aircraft, which isn't possible with these low ceilings.

Anyway, this continuing weather situation has gotten me to take a much more serious perspective on the whole bug-out/defend the castle discussion. I figured I was good with the "2 and 1" formula, but this is apparently more likely of what I will be faced with. I have no family and am still widowed so I must admit that I put more effort into going back to school and very little into the worst case scenario plan. As with so many others, I figured "What are the chances, really?" Well, now I know as I am potentially headed towards the "This is going to suck!" category.

All this must be because I failed to heed the portent of the salamander I found in my garden yesterday. Curses!

[The Reaper]

Wow!

Sorry for the excitement, hermano. Glad to hear you are doing okay.

Hope the water stops rising, if it hasn't already.

It does make me wonder why they had not built homes in that area before.

Maybe the previous property owners knew something. Hmm.

TR

[Razor]

Sorry for the troubles, but Boulder needed a good flush for some time now.

[SF18C]

TOMAHAWK, I remember days like that!

No Name Creek! How Ironic!



Here in Northern Texas, we have the "No Water" Red River! Please scoop some of that up and send to Texas, ASAP!

[Golf1echo]

Dynamic country, 24 closed again down here, saw 3 fatalities across the State last I checked. Heard Lyons was cut off, Manitou was also under a mandatory evac. And something about firemen escaping in a tree as their truck washed away...

[Tatonka316]

TOMAHAWK - you have a safe house down in Littleton if you need one ... minutes from light rail so let me know if we can help. I am still "home" at Bragg, but fly back to FOB-CO tomorrow ...

molon labe

[Sdiver]

Glad to hear you were able to get the toys to higher ground, but most importantly that the homestead is safe.

It's been raining on and off down here on the south side of town for the past three days. The creeks been running steady but it hasn't crest it's banks .... yet.

Rain totals are in, so far. We still have another couple of days of rain forecasted. Let's see what it's like on Saturday.

Oh and Razor .... you're right. Boulder did need a good flush.

[rab97]

My wife just got back to the Springs today. Our house is in the downtown area, and it seems ok so far. She got back at night fall so she didn't check the basement yet. Hopefully all stays well for all of the Front Range area. I'm still at Bragg, but let me know if anyone needs help moving stuff and I'll put a call out. I hadn't been keeping tabs on just how bad it's been. I guess the adage "When it rains it pours" is holding true.

[TOMAHAWK9521]

There is more rain in the forecast for tonight and the weekend, but for now, it's down to a gentle drizzle and the waters have subsided for the time being. However, the cops still have a barricade at the end of my street. It cordons off the 100m stretch where the water was rushing over earlier in the day, but is now down to a shallow flow. I was almost tempted to blow it off and go through it but figured some fiendish LEO was lurking about in the shadows. 6 miles of driving around later, I pull up to my street and, low and behold, those pesky cops have stopped 2 other vehicles that had driven through just as they reached this end of the cordoned section. A-HA! I knew those guys were out there!

The homestead is still high and dry but a fellow gray hair a couple miles away had about 20 gallons pour in through his basement window. It was his place I had just returned from visiting. Fortunately, the water was easily cleaned up and any flood damage is negligible due to the fact that he has an unfinished basement.

I wish I could say the same for other parts of the state that took the brunt of this storm system. It sounds pretty bad up in Lyons. Ironically, the only way out of Estes Park is to take Trail Ridge Road over the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. That road is usually closed to traffic when the weather gets ugly or winter sets in. As for Boulder, I agree -They had it coming.

Just about every drainage and canyon along the front range is NO-GO for travel. If they aren't already flooded and blocked off with rock and mud slides, your chances of getting through one of those canyons alive, if you are stupid enough to try, are non-existent.

[Sdiver]

Link has some pretty good pictures of what's going on, also current evacuations.

http://www.9news.com/news/article/35...ad-across-Colo

[Sdiver]

Looks like Boulder is going to be officially flushed.
Just came through, mandatory evacuation for 4,000 people in the below area, which as you can see, is right through downtown.

[Benevolence]

I guess we got lucky. Parents' house is fine, but neighbors' have some basement flooding. I guess I won't be going shooting in Lefthand Canyon this weekend, or what's left of it. Up in Fort Collins we didn't get it nearly as bad, just made for some miserable biking.

Best wishes to others in the area!

[TOMAHAWK9521]

AAAAAAND......It's raining again!

I was finally able to get out of my lobster trap of a neighborhood yesterday. Even better, I was able to get all the way up to Ft Collins to check on some other gray-hairs who live up there. You wouldn't have thought the state was in such bad shape with sun shining and the roads dry.

For those not familiar with the Front Range, this video was taken not very far north of my house: http://www.usatoday.com/story/weathe...loods/2813225/

I live fairly close to that spot and, from my neighborhood, it looks like just another day after heavy rains. One can't see just how bad the damage really is unless you can find a way out and are able to see areas that were and are still underwater. The way the terrain determines where the water goes can be frustrating to people who can't readily see the water, nor understand how flash floods work out in these parts. Whole swaths of the countryside that saw relatively little rain have been blocked off because somewhere down the road it has been washed out or a section as wide as 20 feet has been undermined by the flood.

The towns of Johnstown and Milliken lie to the north of me and, as of Friday, were a couple of islands out on the plains. The 3 main rivers: the Cache le Poudre, which flows down from Poudre Canyon through my old home of Ft Collins: the Big Thompson, which flows down from Rocky Mountain National Park/Estes Park and through Loveland; and the one on the film, the St Vrain, flows down from Estes Park, through Lyons and Longmont are all converging east of I-25 and flooding the plains and just about every small farm town out there.

One of the guys that I spoke with yesterday up in Ft Collins said Larimer County had upped the estimated number of missing people to 500. People forget that there aren't just mountain folks living in cabins up there. At any given time there are thousands of people up in the high country. With this being archery season, who knows how many hunters are up there along with the other groups of recreationists. If the weather ever settles back down to a seasonal pattern and allows searchers to work safely and find these missing people, it is likely that the death toll is going to climb.

And what could make matters worse, not that I'm trying to turn this tragic saga into a horror movie, is when you go up into the mountains, you become a potential link in the food chain. My late wife was on the county S&R team and more than once did they find remnants of someone who perished from exposure and had wound up an easy meal for some wild critter(s). The bear population in this state has been growing and this is the time of year when bears are out stuffing themselves before hibernation. In recent years, incidents of bears breaking into mountain homes, regardless of the occupants, has been increasing. They've also proven to be getting more aggressive in face to face encounters. I can personally attest to that.

God willing, everyone unaccounted for is found holed up somewhere, alive and in one piece.

[Sdiver]

TOMAHAWK ..... YOU stay safe up there.
I see there are new postings of evacuation orders for certain parts of Longmont. I know you're not in that area, but just be careful.

Talked with a couple of old (er) board members, one in Greely and another in Milliken.

The one in Milliken said his place is just an island. Can't get in, can't get out. Said he and his family are just hunkering down and keeping his powder dry.

The one in Greely said pretty much the same. Where he's at is not so much an "island", there are areas that he's keeping an eye on. But all in all, they're doing okay.

[TOMAHAWK9521]

I don't know how it is up north or against the foothills, but our local flood waters are back to where they were a couple days ago. (*see previously posted pictures). So far, my sump pump has yet to start up while my neighbors on both sides have been running at intervals. I must be in the sweet spot on my side of the street.

Unless the shallow reservoir that lies less than a mile south gives, I'm going to remain in the clear. If it does fail, that would suck. However, the ground rises up a little just before it comes down to my place and the tiny creek, which is once again a river, turns to the west and works its way down the west side of our development. Hopefully, nothing beyond what is currently happening with occur.