Rain began again today. Boulder, CO under water.

https://www.google.com/search?gs_rn=26&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=DpHwq4UrUTJ1NbKX-Tx_nw&cp=11&gs_id=dc&xhr=t&q=boulder+flooding&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.52164340,d.aWM&biw=1152&bih=573&dpr=1.2&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=yek1UrqlGcaUqgHc3IHQDw

I know Nick it is on the news everywhere and you along all others faced with this are in our prayers.

What a bummer :shock::(…you all are in our thoughts and prayers.

Stay high & dry.

Stay safe!!

Is federal assistance needed?

Hope you and your family are safe and dry.

Saw an update that indicated over 1000 people unaccounted for, hoping the best for everyone.

Part of the problem is cellular service is poor in the mountains and with roads and utilities cut off there is no communication. Officially there are 6 confirmed deaths. The areas around Greeley are getting hit bad now due to the creeks/rivers joining and the land flattening.

There are many streets and highways still closed here in the Denver area due to high water and damaged roads.

They say that there have been more people rescued by helicopter since Katrina.

David you are no longer on the news and the shooting in the US Navy yards has taken precedence.
Please keep us updated when you can.

Around here our state/residents take precedence. Yes we care about what happened in DC.

Hope you all at InterNACHI are doing well, and avoided the worst of the flooding.

Anyone heard from Nick yet?
More rain and trouble but nothing on our news accept the Shooting in the Navy base.
So far the report we have is 8 dead and 600 missing.
19000 Homes damaged.

Boulder Country emergency webpage listed 758 missing as of yesterday, and the general feeling is that although they will discover more fatalities as they go through crushed homes (200 in Lyons alone, 15 miles down the road from us) a lot of people are alive but beyond communication for one reason or another.

The mountain communities were hit particularly hard since most of the roads leading up to them followed canyons carved by creeks which turned into rivers and washed out the roads on every outside curve (photo). Those in towns 10-20 miles directly up into the mountains can no longer drive directly down to town (15-20- min.) but have to take a long, long way around (up to an hour or more). Many of them work down here. In Jamestown, located between canyon walls about 20 miles above Boulder, the road to the school is gone. The creek that ran through town re-routed itself. There’s at least one body in a crushed house in town.
Some of the water is contaminated. Lots of communities are still totally cut off except by helicopter and until today there have been big double-rotor Chinooks flying over when weather allowed. The national guard has a presence to help man roadblocks, but you don’t really see them around town that much.

Flooding from the foothill canyons carried a lot of sand and silt into town. City snowplows plowed it into curbside berms and Boulder is full of heavy equipment digging out parking lots, driveways, etc, from mud, sand and gravel. The big storage area right down the street from HQ was left with 2 feet of sand and mud in every alley and peoples belongings were floating down Broadway.

Most of Boulder is OK. It was mainly the areas near where streams came out of the foothills and ran through town that flooded. Low-lying towns up to 20 miles out onto the plains were hit hard, are still underwater and without infrastructure or local sources of clean water.

My buddy Mark on Left Hand Canyon Creek called his neighbor at 2AM last Wednesday and talked him into leaving, The guy tried to drive out in his $75,000 Mercedes, got it stuck, walked out, and when he returned, the car was gone. Someone downstream will be happy!

When the water had gone down some, Mark tried to wade out through shallow water to retrieve a game camera fastened to a tree trunk and sank into the silt up to mid thighs. He found that he couldn’t pull either leg free so he struggled harder. Then the water began to rise and he began to panic. This was like, 10 feet from the bank and he was home alone. After going into serious panic mode he managed to free one leg, but then had nothing to push against. Finally he laid down on his back and broke the vacuum, freeing his other leg.

That’s just one example of small scenarios that have been acted out thousands of times in this area over the last five days as people tried to deal with flooding. Home Depot was jamb-packed and they were a huge help, trucking in lots of water heaters, fans, pumps, tarps, etc. A lot of us are very grateful for the way they responded.

It’s surprising to me that with so many homes crushed/carried away, the death total is limited to 8 at this point. Fro Boulder, we don’t really see the devastation because it’s in areas you can’t drive to.

highway 7 neaqtr Lyons.jpg

Boulder Country emergency webpage listed 758 missing as of yesterday, and the general feeling is that although they will discover more fatalities as they go through crushed homes (200 in Lyons alone, 15 miles down the road from us) a lot of people are alive but beyond communication for one reason or another.

The mountain communities were hit particularly hard since most of the roads leading to them followed canyons carved by creeks which turned into rivers and washed out the roads on every outside curve (photo). Those in towns 10-20 miles directly up into the mountains can no longer drive directly down to Boulder (15-20- min.) but have to take a long, long way around. Many of them work down here. In Jamestown, located between canyon walls about 20 miles above Boulder, the road to the school is gone. The creek that ran through town re-routed itself. There’s at least one body in a crushed house in town.

Some of the water is contaminated. Lots of communities are totally cut off except by helicopter and until today there have been big double-rotor Chinooks flying over when weather allowed. The national guard has a presence to help man roadblocks. It’s the biggest helicopter rescue effort since Katrina, but not bigger than Katrina.
Once thing about these situations, the rumors and claims really fly around, but Boulder is not gone, highway 93 is not destroyed, we can drive to Denver, 1000 are not dead, and so on…

Flooding from the foothill canyons carried a lot of sand and silt into town. City snowplows plowed it into curbside berms and Boulder is full of heavy equipment digging out parking lots, driveways, etc, from mud, sand and gravel. The big storage area right down the street from HQ was left with 2 feet of sand and mud in every alley and peoples belongings were floating down Broadway.

Most of Boulder is OK. It was mainly the areas near where streams came out of the foothills and ran through town that flooded. Low-lying towns up to 20 miles out onto the plains were hit hard, are still underwater and without infrastructure or local sources of clean water.

My buddy Mark on Left Hand Canyon Creek called his neighbor at 2AM last Wednesday and talked him into leaving, The guy tried to drive out in his $75,000 Mercedes, got it stuck, walked out, and when he returned, the car was gone. Someone downstream will be happy!

When the water had gone down some, Mark tried to wade out through shallow water to retrieve a game camera and sunk into the silt up to mid thigh. He found that he couldn’t pull either leg free so he struggled harder. Then the water began to rise and he began to panic. This was like, 10 feet from the bank. after going into serious panic mode he managed to free one leg, but then had nothing to push against. Finally he laid down on his back and broke the vacuum, freeing his other leg.

That’s just one example of small scenarios that have been acted out thousands of times in this area over the last five days as people tried to deal with flooding.

Home Depot was jamb-packed and came through like champions, trucking in water heaters, fans, tarps, pumps, etc.

We’ve got disaster restoration people driving around town from as far away as Alabama. They charge $7,000 to put a few fans and a dehumidifying rig in a a 3000 sq. ft basement.

Nikolai and I are just getting back from the mountains. Our neighbors, still stuck up there, were able to call in their prescriptions and we were able to deliver them today on our KTMs. We also packed eggs in hard crates and delivered them along with 6 gallons of milk and lots of food in our 100+ pound packs. Everyone we know is safe, but trapped up there. Even the National Guard can’t get to them, but we did (the National Guard let us through). It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. Doing it again tomorrow afternoon so I’ll be offline for a bit. A plug for KTM 300 XC-W 2-strokes. Awesome machines.

Nikolai is my mechanic so he tricked out my bike for me. He put on progressive rate springs on the front and back and valved the shocks for my weight. He jetted the carburetor for altitude (9,000 feet above sea level). He put a V-Force reed valve in the air intake, an FMF exhaust pipe, carbon fiber skid plates, a bigger rear sprocket, a smaller front sprocket, and a stiff power valve spring. It’s a go-fast machine in the mountains.

Great to hear Nick! All we had is gone. Now many basements contents are being ripped out.

Here are some picks of me wearing an InterNACHI “Inspected once, inspected right” t-shirt delivering food to my hillbilly friends. Note the culvert that got washed down from up on the mountain.

It’s flooding in Ontario too?

Kenton, does this look familiar?

Another culvert where it shouldn’t be.