I
got a text at 4:40 am. My phone was off, but vibrating, and somehow
it woke me up. Good thing. It was the school district letting us
know that “due to deteriorating conditions throughout the district
and the continued rain and flooding, school will be closed today,
Thursday, September 12th.” Hmm, that's weird, we've
never had a rain day. I went and turned off alarms, informed
(ecstatic!) children of the news, and went back to bed.
When
I later watched the news, I saw what all the fuss was all about. The
mountain town, Lyons, which is 10 miles west of here and at a higher
elevation, had been all but destroyed. The main highway through town
and continuing up to Estes Park, had been washed away in several
places, and the small, picturesque tourist town's main street (and
all of it's cute shops) was under five feet of water. Estes Park was
cut off from the world (as was Lyons) and they were airlifting people
out. We know many people who live in those towns. It was
overwhelming.
Boulder,
which is about 10 miles southwest of here, had also experienced
flash flooding and several areas of the University of Colorado had
been evacuated, and won't be inhabitable the rest of the semester.
Several apartment complexes suffered a similar fate. All the major
roads in and out were closing as the water rose. The Engineer works
in Boulder.
He
called me, saying he'd been turned around at the river on two of the
main N-S streets through town, (and we knew Main Street was already
closed) so maybe he'd just go back to work and wait it out since we
live on the other side of the river. I told him he HAD to keep
trying to get home. I'd been watching the news. He had not. His
cell phone battery was dying. Traffic was horrible. Conditions were
changing rapidly. I tried not to freak out. You know me, that
didn't work so well.
I'm
going to pause the tragedy for some levity. Some of you know that we
get teased about our zombie apocalypse preparations. The Engineer
has solar panels and a LOT of big, deep cycle batteries, and
inverters, and a mostly finished electric car he built himself out of
an old Toyota. We can run off grid for a while. We garden, he
hunts, we buy in bulk, ridiculous amounts of bulk. We probably have
enough food for several families. (And of course toilet paper...)
However,
none of the scenarios we had prepared for (and no, we're not those
crazy “Doomsday Preppers” we're just an inventor engineer and his
along-for-the-ride wife) had included The Engineer NOT BEING HOME.
My sister-in-law teased me later (after offering me her kayaks) that
she had to run the generator at their house once, but at least she
had a manual. Did The Engineer write manuals for his inventions?
Um, that would be NO.
Three
and a half hours later The Engineer arrives home safely. He had to take quite the circuitous route and sit in a lot of traffic, but he made it. I relaxed a bit.
The
rain continued. They closed schools another day. We all began to
realize the magnitude of what was happening as we watched videos and
the news and read the on-line version of the paper. Road closures
were updated at a ridiculous rate.
Our town was cut in half by the
river, and everyone had to stay on his or her side, and HOME. No
non-essential travel. I-25 was now closed. Neighborhoods evacuated,
one of them 1.5 miles from here, but that at the bottom of a 1.5 mile
high hill. We were safe. My friend's parents' house was flooded.
There's
so much more to tell. The kindness of strangers, the overwhelming
donations to the evac centers, the neighbors helping neighbors so
that both houses could be saved, the miracle rescues, the
unbelievable tragedy of a whole town washed away. I'm almost numb.
We are safe, high, and dry, but so many friends and acquaintances are
not and have lost so much. Schools are closed until the earliest
return day of Thursday. The rain continues, off and on, and the
clean-up will take months.
They're
calling it a 500 year flood. As many people have been airlifted out
as during Katrina. Almost 800 are unaccounted four. Many have died
(no firm numbers as of right now). Please pray for Colorado.
~Tina
Meanwhile,
just a reminder, cuz I keep my promises:
