Estes Park Flood - Sept 12, 2013

Thursday morning, Sept 12, M was woken up by a 5:30 phone call cancelling school due to flash flood warnings and road closures.  As the day progressed, the news just kept getting worse and worse, as the rains continued and the creeks kept rising. From our home in Loveland, all we could do was follow facebook and text co-workers (until cell service was cut off) to hear news from EP and the Y.

My normal drive to the Y includes driving through the Big Thompson Canyon. The bottom of Hwy 34 washed out.  It will be a while before that road is fixed.

On Sept 12, that commute (that I didn't do) looked a lot different according to the Storm Chaser video below. 

Big Thompson Commute 

The official news report of Estes Park the morning of Thursday, Sept 12.

Estes Park Flood Report 

To see what the town of Estes Park looked like as of 4:30 am on Friday, Sept 13th, click on the link below.

Estes Park Flood

 In order to get an idea of really how bad this flood is, below is a comparison to the 1976 flood, which was a pretty deadly flash flood.

Another comparison picture.  The bottom of the canyon what it should look like and what it did as of Thursday.  The Fun City is on the corner in the middle of Estes where we turn to go the last 3 miles to the Y.

 

Arieal photo of Big Thompson west of Viestenz Smith Park.  17 miles of the road were damaged or washed out.  In the weeks following, many national guard troops gave to help with road repairs. 

Below is a link to the road repairs being done a month later.  The goal is to have a temporary road by December 1 and then 2+ years starting in the spring of major road construction.  

Big Thompson Road repairs 

By Friday morning, the water had gotten east of Loveland and was flooding I-25.

Here's our town Friday as the Big Thompson kept flowing east.  In the upper left you can see our camper storage area (:52 and again at 1:29), really only 1 1/2 block from the flooding, but luckily stayed dry.

Loveland ariel view Friday

 Friday evening, we went to the old fairgrounds to get an idea of where the water really was.  This is where we play in the water fountains and where a month ago I swam in the river and could touch.  

Through the trees is the shelter at the park, across what used to be the parking lot, but now is all river.

Coming home from church on Sunday (raining again!), the ditch next to our road was starting to overflow unto the road.

Labor Day Camping

Labor Day weekend, we headed up to the mountains to go camping.  We got a little later start than planned due to a flat tire on the ATV, but once we arrived the weekend was good.

I had to practice my writing and alphabet.

There has been a lot of rain lately and so the trails were good and muddy.  On Saturday our early afternoon ride was with quite a train of ATVs

 

and even one four-wheeling Jeep among us.

 

We were on our way to G's rock to spread her ashes.  Each of us got a turn.

My helmet worked as a good seat to watch the spreading of the ashes.

That rain I mentioned started while we were on top.  After flying our way down towards safety, the rain let up a bit and the hail off the trail was clearly visible.

Later that evening, Cousin K was working hard trying to chop up firewood for the campfire.

P had to come over and give a lesson!

It was quite entertaining watching her.

Hanging out at the campfire watching the wood chopping show.

The last day's ride was a warm and sunny adventure.  We found a good rest stop and some more mud puddles. 

We had our own little picnic table.

With all that mud, the four wheelers needed a good bath!

Bedtime and morning

Sometime bedtime is just more fun with a Bible Song devotional time!

Since I am now a big first grader, I can read stories to my sister!

But storytime with D is always more fun!

 

Playing bedtime in the living room.

Some mornings after D leaves for work, M gets two extra guests in bed!

Hike and Bear

In mid-August, we drove the scenic way up to RMNP to do a short hike.  We grabbed sandwiches and headed up the  mountain after church.

C wanted to carry the backpack with the water and snacks.

The destination was a small waterfall along the river.

Enjoying the cascades.

On the way home we noticed a bunch of people pulled off at the rest area.  Since we were being tourists for the day, we stopped to see what all the fuss was about.
Who needs to go all the way to Yellowstone to see a bear?  We saw a little black bear in the Big Thompson Canyon on our way down from a Sunday afternoon hike.

Chalk and water

C&I had some fun playing outside with chalk and water.  M found us in the kitchen getting some more water and found these footprints leading the way.  Someday she won't have these footprints to clean up after.