In the past five days, we've had about 15 inches of rain--some areas more. We call it a "100 year flood", but nobody can remember anything like it. The Big Thompson Canyon flood, back in the 70's was devastating, but localized.
Whole towns are being evacuated. Virtually every town and city along the northern front range is flooded. Boulder got hit first, but that was for starters. The rest of the towns fell like dominos--Lyons surrounded by water, roads to Estes Park impassable. Estes Park itself, a mountain town, is flooded.
Five people are confirmed dead, and, according to the Sheriff's Department in Boulder and Larimer counties, about 580 people are unaccounted for as of this afternoon. Property damage is massive and extensive.
This afternoon, six inches of rain fell in Castle Rock in about two hours. Here in Aurora, we must have gotten three or four inches again this afternoon, with high winds, and about three or four inches of nickel-sized hail, and flash floods again all over the city.
This is not normal, especially in this region. If there weren't a city here, this would be considered high desert. Our average precipitation for the entire year, counting snow, is about 14 inches. We've had 15 inches in five days.
We count ourselves lucky that we are, usually, shielded from the natural disasters that afflict other parts of the world. Tornados are relatively rare (though increasing in frequency). At this elevation, we really don't get all that much snow, except for the occasional blizzard, which strikes about every decade or so. There is some risk of earthquake, but far less than many other places in the United States. We have wildfires, but no hurricanes.
We do have floods occasionally, but nothing like this. Something like this never really occurred to anybody until just now. Aren't we having these 100 year floods many times more frequently than once in 100 years? Is this the "new normal"?
Give at ELCA Disaster Relief.
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