Major flooding in Colorado

[Mark Ferguson]

The area I am in did not see as much rain as some areas this week, but we are right where two rivers combine and we are seeing major flooding. The South Platte river crested at 18 feet last night and the highest it has been recorded before was 11.7 feet, flooding occurs at 10 feet. I would estimate hundreds of homes have been flooded in Greeley and Evans if not more. Many in the flood plane were completely under water. Many small towns have been hit badly, Johnstown, Milliken, Windsor, Kersey, La Salle, Frederick, Firestone all had evacuations yesterday.

You have probably heard about Boulder being hammered as well as Loveland, Ft Collins, Denver and the mountain towns Estes Park, Lyons, Jamestown, Nederland. Word is Glen Haven and Jamestown are mostly gone, but no pictures have come out yet, because all the roads are gone up into the mountains. Yesterday there was no way to travel anywhere as highway 34, 85, 60, 66, and I25 were all closed. Highway 34 up to Estes is mostly gone as well as most roads headed up to the mountains.

In Colorado we average 15 inches of rain a year on the plains. Boulder had 17 inches of rain in four days.

All my rentals are okay, but I have a flip that I believe was in the evacuation zone in Johnstown. I have two HUD listings in evacuation zones in Longmont and Frederick. We will see how everything looks as soon as we can get to the houses!

[Jon Holdman]

@Mark Ferguson we're doing OK. We won't every get quite back to the same place, but we're getting essentials replaced and the place dried out. Lots of folks at work live up in the more dramatically affected areas and suffered damage.

I really dislike it when they use terms like "1000 year flood". They mean there is a one in 1000 chance of a flood like that in any year. Doesn't at all mean it only happens once in 1000 years. The odds of it happening in the next year at 1 in 1000. Just like they were before the flood. The fact its happened once in no way reduces the chances of it happening again. If anything, I'd say it hints that the models they use for making these estimates is wrong and its now more likely to happen again, now that's its proven to have been able to happen once.

This feels a bit like one of those "you can't avoid your fate" horror movies. We only missed being in Estes Park during the 1976 Big Thompson Flood by the skin of our teeth.