Colorado National Guard rescue hundreds
The Associated Press reports that the Colorado National Guard has broken through the flood waters there to rescue about 1750 Coloradans from the rising waters;
National Guard helicopters and truck convoys broke through to paralyzed canyon communities where thousands of stranded residents were eager to escape the Rocky Mountain foothills. But not everybody was willing to go. Dozens of people in the isolated community of Jamestown wanted to stay to watch over their homes.
Authorities warned residents who chose not to leave that they might not get another chance for a while and should be prepared to endure weeks without electricity, running water and basic supplies.
“We’re not trying to force anyone from their home. We’re not trying to be forceful, but we’re trying to be very factual and definitive about the consequences of their decision, and we hope that they will come down,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said.
Category: National Guard
I do feel for those people. You have to decide whether to go and come back, hoping that your house will still be there unharmed, or stick it out and maybe go down with the ship.
The rains they’ve been getting should have come up here to the Midwest and Great Plains states, and we got nearly nothing all summer — second year in a row.
While I do understand the need for a “this may be your last opportunity to escape” message, there is a certain irony to the proposition that millions are spent rescuing skiers, hikers and the like who are injured or lost while they are out having fun, while these folks only want to secure their stuff (to include caring for their farm animals), with no support or expectations from anyone.
It’s just a huge mess here, and the destruction is heartbreaking. My son was working in the northern part of Longmont Friday morning and it took us 4 hours trying to navigate him home to Ft Collins around road closures, it usually takes 20 minutes. He got to one bridge only to have them close it 3 cars in front of him. He finally got across 85 15 minutes before they closed it. As he crossed the bridge, the water was already up and over one southbound lane and he saw an RV floating downstream and houses completely under water. Said it looked like a scene from Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, they opened I-25 by morning so that he could come down for drill. Yesterday, he got caught in a terrible storm in Aurora coming home from Buckley so more flooding there as well. It’s bad enough that they are asking for ANG volunteers for sandbagging duty and, of course, he signed up. Even though they’re Guard, ANG doesn’t usually get called out for local disasters. They helped man barricades at the Black Forest Fire this summer and now this, just on a volunteer basis. My daughter just returned from tech school yesterday and she doesn’t report to Buckley until Wed, although by then she may be called to help since she’s vehicle operations. It will take months to recover from this. I’ve never experienced anything like it. We had almost 7 inches of rain at my house, so far, when 1 or 2 inches is rare. And it’s raining all day again today. Locally, we’re having water treatment plant problems because of silt and the flood waters exposed a main transmission line, so we’re banned from outside watering (LOL, we don’t NEED any outside watering!). Fortunately, we have two water treatment plants so one is working while the affected one is being cleaned out. The creek is a mile north of us and would have to change course and flow up a steep hill to get here so we’re OK. There’s a small lake to the west but the drainage… Read more »
Colorado Springs is getting dumped on again today. Praying that people stay safe.
A gent from the other major board on which I post is out there. Stay safe, SSB.
Common Sense, pass along my families thanks for your children’s service. Always fun to dump on the guard in jest, but they really shine at times like this and show their value. Good folks. Hope you and yours stay safe throughout this ordeal.
A few times we’d warned folks to leave “NOW!” and they said they wanted to stay and save their home…then when things turned to shit, they’d call and say:”Come and save my dumb ass now.”
when I was the one who talked to them I was a bastard about it and I’d say: “You waited until it was too late, now you want my guys to risk their lives to save you? Stay where you are, we ain’t comin'”
Here’s a link to photos of the flooding and the damage it is creatinhg. Pay particular attention to the shots of roads that have been almost completely wiped out.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52996149/displaymode/1247?beginSlide=1>1=43001
I don’t think we get the full impact of something like this unless we see the damage. When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, it covered half of the US continent, sending heavy rains into New England that completely washed out roads and bridges. You may recall the wedding party that was stranded for almost a week because the bridge on the road to their location had been swept downstream and destroyed. There was also the severe flooding in New Jersey, and because it hit so late, by the time it got to New York, the temperatures had dropped and snow hit the residents of Breezy Point in addition to flooding, and there were fires that burned out of control because there was no way to get to them. The fire last week in New Jersey was in an area that had been rebuilt after Hurr. Sandy.