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Spring
and winter collide as a heavy wet snowstorm hit Colorado on Mother's
Day, covering blooms and blossoms and prompting birds to look for cover.
(Steve Nehf, The Denver Post)
Denver
received five inches of snow, which mostly stuck on grass and trees
instead of roadways. It continued to snow into Monday morning, which
slowed down the morning commute in the metro area. Driving conditions
were the worst in the mountains, with certain areas receiving over a
foot of snow.
.....
Winter storm pounding Colorado mountains; 10 inches possible in Denver
While
Denver dealt with slushy streets and snow on tender buds, the Colorado
high country and foothills fought a winterlike battle with road
closures, fender benders and heavy tree damage Sunday.Two law
enforcement officers were injured in separate accidents as they helped
motorists Sunday night, according to the State Patrol.
A Jefferson
County sheriff's deputy was injured along with three others when an SUV
struck his cruiser that was parked on the side of U.S. 285 near the
community of Doubleheader just after 7 p.m. None of the injuries were
thought to be life-threatening, according to the sheriff's department.
The cause of the crash was under investigation, but weather is likely a factor, said sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley.
Four people, including a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy, were
injured when seven cars slid into one another on U.S. 285 near the
community of Doubleheader on Sunday. (Courtesy Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District)
At
7:38 p.m. a state trooper was injured when his vehicle was hit as he
was parked along U.S. 285 near Fairplay. A car slid across the road and
hit the trooper's vehicle head-on.
The trooper sustained minor injuries, but no one else was hurt, according to the State Patrol.
Chad
Obrien, right, and his friend Church Poula work to remove water from
Obrien's basement as Obrien's four year old son Elijah watches, several
days after massive flooding swept through Longmont, Colo., Wednesday
Sept. 18, 2013. As water recedes and flows east onto the Colorado
plains, rescuers are shifting their focus from emergency airlifts to
trying to find the hundreds of people still unaccounted for after last
week's devastating flooding. /AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
LONGMONT, Colo.
State highway crews and National Guard troops worked furiously Sunday
to repair highways to Colorado mountain towns cut off by unprecedented
flooding.
Other teams were assessing how much damage needed to be
repaired on Colorado's eastern plains before trucks begin hauling in the
fall harvest.
"They're really humming," said Jerre Stead, the
corporate executive chosen by Gov. John Hickenlooper to oversee the
state's recovery from the catastrophic floods, which killed seven and
wreaked havoc across 17 counties and 2,000 square miles.
55 Photos
Flash flooding swamps Colorado
Stead
and Don Hunt, executive director of the Colorado Department of
Transportation, said they were optimistic they can meet a Dec. 1 target
to complete temporary fixes to at least some roads, if more bad weather
doesn't interfere.
Quick repairs are critical because winter
weather will make highway work more difficult and force the closure of
the high-elevation Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National
Park, one of only two routes still open into Estes Park, a small town at
the park's east entrance.
Play Video
Colorado flooding triggers oil spills
Also
looming are the harvests from Colorado's $8.5 billion-a-year
agriculture industry, which relies on trucks to get cattle and crops to
markets.
Officials said it's too early to know how much time and
money it will take to make permanent repairs, but they say it will cost
more than $100 million.
Some 200 miles of state highways and 50 bridges were destroyed.
On
Sunday, Stead and Hunt drove up flood-battered U.S. 36 northwest of
Denver until they reached a point where floodwaters had obliterated the
roadway. Then they got out and hiked.
Holding his hands about shoulder-width apart, Stead said, "You're on paths this narrow where the roads used to be."
Vice
President Joe Biden is promising residents that aid for areas
devastated by massive flooding in Colorado won't stop even if the
federal government shuts down.
"I promise you, I promise you,
there will be help," Biden said after flying by helicopter Monday over
the Big Thompson River, and fields and reservoirs swollen with muddy
brown water.
Biden stood with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and
member of the state congressional delegation to tell Coloradans not to
fear that budget problems in Washington could stall aid.
"It's
probably going to scare the living devil out of you," Biden said about
debt ceiling negotiations in Congress. Biden insisted the "dysfunction"
in Washington won't affect emergency spending.
"They will not shut
down even if the Congress doesn't fund the federal government," Biden
said, pointing to federal emergency relief workers behind him.
The
death toll from Colorado's flooding rose to eight Monday, when a
79-year-old woman whose house was swept away by the Big Thompson River
was found dead on the riverbank.
The number of people unaccounted
for dwindled to six. One other person was still missing and presumed
dead — a 60-year-old woman from Larimer County. A man was taken off the
list Monday after walking into the sheriff's office.
The floods
caused damage across nearly 2,000 square miles. Nearly 2,000 homes were
damaged or destroyed along with more than 200 miles of state highways
and 50 state bridges.
The floods are also blamed for spills of
about 27,000 gallons of oil in northern Colorado oilfields, including
two mishaps found over the weekend, the Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission said.
September
13, 2013 - UNITED STATES - By air and by land, the rescue of hundreds
of Coloradoans stranded by epic mountain flooding was accelerating as
food and water supplies ran low.
Meanwhile, thousands more were
driven from their homes on the plains as debris-filled rivers became
muddy seas inundating towns and farms miles from the Rockies.
For
the first time since the harrowing mountain floods began Wednesday,
Colorado got its first broad view of the devastation - and the reality
of what is becoming a long-term disaster is setting in. The flooding has
affected parts of a 4,500-square-mile area, almost the size of
Connecticut.
National Guard choppers were evacuating 295 people -
plus pets - from the mountain hamlet of Jamestown, which was isolated
by flooding that scoured the canyon the town sits in.
Mike Smith,
incident commander at Boulder Municipal Airport, said helicopters would
continue flying in and out late into the night.
The outlook for anyone who'd rather stay is weeks without power, cell phone service, water or sewer. For
those awaiting an airlift, Guardsmen dropped food, water and other
supplies in Jamestown and other small towns in the winding, narrow
canyons that dot the Rocky Mountain foothills.
Thousands of evacuees sought shelter in cities that were nearly surrounded by raging rivers spilling over their banks.
The
dayslong rush of water from higher ground has killed four people and
turned towns on Colorado's expansive eastern plains into muddy swamps.
Crews
used inflatable boats to rescue families and pets from stranded
farmhouses. Some evacuees on horseback had to be escorted to safe
ground.
Boulder County officials said Friday night that the
number of people unaccounted for had risen to 172, according to local
television and newspaper reports.
The officials said earlier that the unaccounted for figure doesn't necessarily represent missing people.
Near
Greeley, some 35 miles east of the foothills, broad swaths of farmland
had become lakes, and hundreds of roads were closed or damaged by
floodwaters. A 70-mile stretch of Interstate 25 was closed from Denver
to the Wyoming line.
Rocky Mountain National Park closed Friday,
its visitors forced to leave via the 60-mile Trail Ridge Road to the
west side of the Rockies.
It will be weeks, if not months, before
a semblance of normalcy returns to Lyons, a gateway community to the
park. The town, surrounded by sandstone cliffs whose color was reflected
in the raging St. Vrain River, consisted of six islands Friday as
residents barbecued their food before it spoiled. Several people set up a
tent camp on a hill.
Some 2,500 residents were being evacuated
from Lyons. Two bridges that led into the area were washed away.
'There's so much water coming out of the canyon, it has to go somewhere,
and unfortunately it's coming into the city,' said Ashlee Herring,
spokeswoman for the Boulder office of Emergency Management.
Boulder
Creek, which runs through the heart of the city, became a raging
torrent that burst its banks and flooded adjacent parking lots and
streets as warning sirens wailed.
Officials in Boulder announced
just before midnight Thursday that they were tracking a large 'wall of
water, containing debris and vehicles' headed towards Emerson Gulch from
the Fourmile burn area.
The Denver Post reported that the
30-foot wall of water was caused by a drainage gulch that burst and
released a large amount of water which swept up debris and vehicles in
it's path.
Hail
as large as baseballs and tornadoes were reported in northeast Colorado
Saturday as severe weather moved through from the northwest to the
southeast. Flash flooding was also reported after heavy downpours hit
some areas from Larimer County onto the Eastern Plains. Severe weather
was reported in central Greeley and into Evans, Colo. Most of
northeastern Colorado, including Denver, is under a tornado watch until
10 p.m. There were several reports of tornado touchdowns and unconfirmed
reports of roofs blown off houses in Weld County. Crop damage was also
reported from the severe weather. The severe weather was drifting
southeast. At about 5:45 p.m. Denver International Airport tweeted, "7
aircraft diverted due to winds this afternoon 1 Albuquerque, 1 Colorado
Springs, 4 Grand Junction, 1 Pueblo."
...
Storms that hit region Saturday expected to weaken on Sunday
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/04/2013 11:20:51 AM MDT |Updated: about 6 hours ago
Clouds darken quickly over northern Fort Collins on Saturday, August 3, 2013. (Photo courtesty of The Denver Channel)
Metro Denver can expect isolated showers and thunderstorms before midnight Sunday, the National Weather Service predicts.
There is a 20 percent chance of rain, with the low temperature expected to be 59 degrees.
On
Monday expect partly sunny skies, with a high temperature of 90
degrees. There is a 10 percent chance of isolated showers and
thunderstorms after noon.
The chance of rain is expected to
continue Monday night, with a 10 percent chance of isolated
thunderstorms before midnight and a low temperature of 63 degrees.
