Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Flooding in Boulder


Boulder is under siege!
The slow moving storm(s) that has been delivering inches of rain over the last 48 hours is now holding the residents at ransom.

As of a few hours ago, the Boulder landscape was saturated.  Water is falling from the sky faster that it seems to run off... or it simply has nowhere left to go.

On top of it all, the mountains are also getting heavy rain and the deluge is making its way down the canyons and creeks in flash-flood fashion.  The land that was scorched by wild fires last year is high risk for erosion and mudslides in this weather.  In fact the 4-mile Canyon burn zone is currently being evacuated, with 911 calls going out to residents, telling them this is a life threatening event and they must move to higher ground, immediately.

As for me... Well, I just used my second best judgement to drive home from Longmont to Boulder. What should have been a 20 minute drive, was an hour.  I did my best to avoid all the road closures that have occurred, but got stuck between Cherryvale Rd and 76th St, on South Boulder Rd, just as it was overcome with water and the police closed it.  Yes, I was the Lexus going backwards up South Boulder Road.  But at least I wasn't the car stalled out and stuck in the river on the road!

Safely back in Martin Acres, I have not dared to look in my crawl space.  In all probability, there is some water in there.  I have shut off the furnace circuit breaker and will further investigate when there is a point to it.  :-)  According to my neighbors on the MANA list, I would be in good company if I did have some water infiltration.

No.  I'm not in the high or moderate flood risk area.  Check out the Boulder Flood Plain map.

Trust me when I tell you, I drove along roads that were in the low risk area tonight... and they were under water.

Please be careful.  There is a reason I am falling asleep to the sound of sirens tonight.




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