Colo. flooding leads to thousands more evacuations

Colo. flooding leads to thousands more evacuations

Flooding that cut off dozens of people in Colorado mountain communities swept downstream Friday, spilling rivers and creeks over their banks and forcing thousands more evacuations in towns and cities beleaguered by days of rain.

National Guard troops were able to reach Lyons after that community, Jamestown and others in the Rocky Mountain foothills were isolated by flooding and without power or telephone since Thursday. The rain that has hung over the region all week continued to fall Friday.

At least three people were killed and another was missing, and hundreds of people were forced to seek shelter up and down Colorado's populated Front Range.

Boulder County spokesman James Burrus said 17 people in the county were unaccounted for Friday. But he noted, "Unaccounted for doesn't m
ean missing. It means we haven't heard back from them."

Officials planned to release the names later.

Two backpackers who were hiking the 14,259-foot Longs Peak became stranded when the weather turned, the mother of one of the backpackers said Friday.

They have a tent but no cold-weather gear, she said.

"Those kids have been up there for two days now," she said. "We're very concerned we may be in a long line of people needing assistance."

Late Thursday, warning sirens blared in Boulder, and city officials sent notice to about 4,000 people living along Boulder Creek around the mouth of Boulder Canyon to head for higher ground, according to Boulder's Daily Camera newspaper.

Debris and mud coming off the mountainsides had backed up water at the mouth of the canyon, prompting rapidly rising creek levels, the city Office of Emergency Management said.

The creek began to recede after midnight, but the conditions remained dangerous, and a surprising amount of water was still flowing into the city's streets, Police Chief Mark Beckner told the Daily Camera after touring the damage.

City officials in Fort Collins closed bridges after water began topping Seaman Reservoir in the Poudre Canyon, The Denver Post reported. The city warned residents to stay clear of the river.

South of the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater, Jefferson County deputy sheriffs went door-to-door in Morrison and Kittridge, asking hundreds of residents to leave their homes as Bear Creek neared flood stage. The amphitheater was in no immediate danger.

In Lyons, residents took shelter on higher ground, including some at an elementary school. Although everyone was believed to be safe, the deluge was expected to continue into Friday.

"There's no way out of town. There's no way into town. So, basically, now we're just on an island," said Jason Stillman, 37, who was forced with his fiancee to evacuate their Lyons home after a nearby river began to overflow into the street.

The Colorado National Guard began trucking people out of Lyons on Thursday evening.

To the north, residents along the Big Thompson Canyon in Larimer County, scene of the deadliest flash flood in state history, also were evacuated. The Big Thompson River flooded in 1976 after about a foot of rain fell in just four hours, killing 144 people.