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Thursday, September 19, 2013 © Berthoud, Colorado
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Volume 10, Number 38
The flood’s aftermath
Little Thompson River swells to record levels damaging roads, train tracks, homes and structures By John Gardner The Surveyor Cindy Befus and her sister, Karen Befus, did not get a lot of sleep Thursday night. Their property, just south of Berthoud on County Road 15 (CR 15), is intersected by the Little Thompson River. Cindy’s house sits up the hill to the south of the river, while Karen’s house is nestled closer to the river’s north bank. Thursday night, as the waters rose to never-before-seen levels, Cindy had an uneasy feeling. “There was a lake just waiting on the other side of the train tracks,” Cindy said. “I just had a sick feeling in my stomach.” When the sun rose Friday morning the extensive damage was apparent. The bridge that spans the river remained intact. However, huge sections of road, as large as 25 feet across and 12 feet deep, were washed out on both sides. The section of earth that held the railroad tracks and acted like a dam holding the river’s gathering water gave way overnight, the tracks hung in the air, bowed like an object in a Salvador Dalí painting. Luckily for Karen, the house sustained minimal damage, but much of her property was mud-covered and saturated with flood water. Saturday, curious people walked beyond the road-closed signs to get a closer look. Xcel Energy had a technician out checking for possible gas-line leaks. Cindy called the company because she could smell gas. A large section of CR15, 50 feet in length, was pushed from its location and rested intact on Befus’ property. “It’s just incredible,” Cindy joked, “we now have a road on our property.” The flooding of the Little Thompson River affected local residents south of Berthoud, damaging at least nine roads and close to 50 homes along its path, according to Berthoud Fire Protection District Chief Steve Charles. The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that three dams in the Big Elk Meadow area failed due to the amounts of water flowing down stream Thursday night. The dams were located at Sunset Lake, Mirror Lake and Rainbow Lake, which are three lakes about eight miles west of Lyons. All were earthen dams and were reportedly “very small,” so the “impact in the area was minimal from these breaks,” the sheriff’s office reported. Sheriff’s office spokesman John Schulz said that the amount of extra water from those three lakes wasn’t enough to make a difference with the amount of water that was coming down. “It was a drop in the bucket,” Schulz said. “By the time those dams gave way,” Schulz said, “most of the damage was already done.” Many residents along the Little Thompson experienced horrific episodes similar, or worse, than the Befuses. To the east, along County Road 4E (CR 4E), Sean and Michelle Jurs could only watch as the water rose, overflowing its banks and overtaking their driveway Thursday. “What can you do?” Sean asked. “There’s nothing you can do.” Sean and Michelle have lived in their house for close to 20 years and have never before seen the river this size. Some areas in Larimer County experienced a 100-year flood and other areas experienced a 1,000-year flood, the sheriff’s office reported. “It’s been high before,” Sean said, “but never like this.” The rushing water eventually overtook CR 4E, washing out the road on either side of the bridge. Huge trees were downed and strewn along the river banks and some lay
Motorist drove into river before closures By John Gardner The Surveyor
travel far in any direction from town to see a lot of damage, and to know it was a major regional event,” said Hart. He went on to state that from the standpoint of it being a regional event Berthoud was affected. He mentioned being cut off from emergency medical services, such as the hospitals in Loveland and Longmont, as being one potentially serious emergency. “Nobody could get across the rivers, so we were on our own for a while. We were lucky nothing
At 5:30 a.m. on Friday, Berthoud resident Art Karsel and his sister, Amy Rogers, got in his car and headed south on County Road 17. They were going to Walmart to get water. It was raining and the Little Thompson River was raging larger than it had in close to 100 years. As Karsel drove down the road, another car driving north approached. “They didn’t know that the bridge was out,” Karsel said. Karsel flashed his car’s brights, attempting to notify the oncoming driver of the danger ahead – with no luck. The oncoming car simply switched off its bright headlights. During the night, the Little Thompson had grown in volume, exceeding its banks. It had grown too great to be contained within the boundaries of the narrow opening that made its way underneath CR17 and had washed out a 15-foot section on the south side of the bridge. Karsel already knew that the road was washed out, living nearby. But the road hadn’t been blocked off yet. Karsel and his sister stopped driving after the motorist passed by. They watched to see where the car was going. And then it happened. “I just saw the taillights disappear,” Karsel said. Karsel turned his car around and headed toward the river. He told his sister to call 911 and he got out to check on the condition of the vehicle and its occupants. “I could see the car floating down the river,” Karsel said. “His dome light was on and the car was just floating down the river.” Karsel watched as the car continued down the roaring Little Thompson until it went out of view. Karsel started down a driveway near the river in the direction he last saw the car when he noticed a person walking up the driveway, bleeding, wet, and cold. Karsel said he took off his sweatshirt and gave it to the man, who seemed to be in shock, and helped him to his car to warm up. About that time, Karsel noticed another vehicle coming down CR 17, this time from the north. It was a Berthoud Fire Protection District Search and Rescue vehicle. Karsel waved his arms trying to get the driver’s attention. At the last moment, the vehicle stopped, the driver’s-side front tire over the edge. “I just say it was divine intervention,” Karsel said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” According to Berthoud Fire Protection District’s Chief Steve Charles, the person driving the emergency vehicle was a Berthoud Fire “chief officer” who was in route to the call, which Rogers had made minutes earlier. “He was unable to see due to lack of visibility and was unable to determine that the bridge was out,” Charles said. The other man, whose name was not released, was not severely injured, according to Charles. “Everyone was OK. No one was transported to the hospital or anything like that,” he said. In the days since, Charles indicated that the fire department has responded to four similar incidents. Nine county roads that are intersected by the Little Thompson River are impassable due to flooding. Most of those bridges and roads have been washed out, leaving huge gashes between the existing road and the bridge, making it impassable for motorists and making the fire department’s response times longer in areas south of the river. “We have an alternate plan in place for those response routes,” Charles said. For addresses south of the river,
TOWN cont. on page 5
FLOOD cont. on page 2
(Above) A Berthoud Fire Protection District vehicle rests precariously at a washout on County Road 17.
Photo by Mark McGee
(Below) A piece of asphalt from County Road 15 rests in Karen Befus’ pasture, Saturday, after the flooding Little Thompson River washed sections of the road out overnight. See related photo on page 10.
Photo by John Gardner
across the road Monday morning. Across the river to the west on CR 4E, Wanda Skeen and her family were beginning the long clean-up process Monday morning. Skeen pumped muddy water and cleared out mud from the basement of her mother’s house, which sits on the same piece of property about 30 feet from her house. Skeen’s beautiful lawn, once a picture-perfect river-front property, was now a meadow of muddy mess that stretched from CR4E surrounding both houses and continuing past into what is now a new path of the river. “This was a beautiful lawn,” Skeen said pointing to a riverbed literally feet from her house. “This is what’s left.” As of Monday, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office reported 13 National Guard helicopters and three civilian helicopters continued evacuating stranded people, aided with surveillance, and brought in emergency personnel to affected areas. The damage area consists of approximately 1,120 square miles with the severe damage occurring in the Big Thompson
Look who’s in the news! Jano Beltran Nick Henderson
Jack Sommers Renee Neuhalfen
Classified ................................... 9 Crossword .................................. 7 Sports ........................................ 6 Legal notices .............................. 9 Opinion ...................................... 4 Then & Now ............................... 5 Weather ..................................... 2
Canyon and Buckhorn Canyon. Close to 1,000 Larimer County residents were stranded in remote locations; 398 persons were unaccounted for; two reports confirmed of people missing or presumed dead; however, there were no confirmed fatalities within Larimer County directly related to flooding. Initial estimates show approximately 1,500 residences in Larimer County were destroyed, with an estimated 4,500 damaged, according to the sheriff’s office. Denver’s 9News reported that 11,700 people were evacuated statewide and more than 18,000 structures were damaged or destroyed due to flooding. Surprisingly, Skeen’s house received minor water damage and the flooding was contained to the crawlspace. But the landscaping was destroyed and will need to be completely rebuilt. She also lost an old horse barn that was near the river. Her mother’s house received most of the damage. “There’s still about three feet of water in the basement,” Skeen said.
According to a sheriff’s office report, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contributed two 80-person searchand-rescue teams Sunday to assist with operations. A Type II management team arrived Saturday with 50 additional people to help with planning, coordination, and resource allocation for all areas of Larimer County. In all, FEMA announced Sunday that 15 counties along Colorado’s Front Range were declared emergency disaster areas due to flooding. The counties included the hardest hit of Boulder, Larimer and El Paso counties, but also included Adams, Araphahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Fremont, Jefferson, Morgan, Logan, Pueblo, Washington and Weld Counties. Skeen has lived on the property since 1960. Her mother’s house is the house she grew up in. She said that she’s seen the river flood before, during high runoff years when the state has abundant snowpack, but this was as big as she’s ever seen it. “Nothing like this,” Skeen said.
Flood impact minimal in town By Rudy Hemmann The Surveyor The Berthoud Board of Trustees held a special meeting Tuesday evening which began with reports from members of town staff regarding the flooding that had occurred in the rural areas and communities around Berthoud due to the heavy rains of the past week. The first to report was Town Administrator Mike Hart. “The town was pretty lucky in that Berthoud proper really didn’t see much as far as storm damage or flooding events … but you didn’t have to