Ward is fine. We’re at 9100+ feet altitude so we’re at the top of the flood.We’ve seen more water in our little branch of Left Hand Creek than even in the middle of the biggest snowmelt + thunderstorm. And even at that we experienced NOTHING compared to the horror that happened in Jamestown, Lyons and Salina and dozens of other communities in our little corner of the world. Our thoughts are with our fellow mountain communities that have been hammered by fire and now flood, and with communities, farms, families, ranches on the plains that are under water.
It’s times like this when all of us in Ward (and the “suburbs”) come out of the woodwork, I’ve met a whole new group of people I’d never met. We’ve helped each other with food, generators, sump pumps, batteries, you name it. We will be there to help our neighboring communities pick up their pieces too.
We are still stranded right now – every access to the plains is cut off except Clear Creek Canyon, 50 miles to the south, and that puts you in Golden, still 25 miles from Boulder. It’s going to be a while, months maybe, before our lovely Left Hand Canyon is drivable again. Nederland police estimate at least a month before Boulder Canyon is open again. All this is complicated by the imminent winter, with the first snows expected in just about a month.
I’ve been participating in Emergency Planning for over a year and while it’s been a pretty effective process, it’s clear that it never occurred to ANYONE that something this extreme could happen. I mean how does one prepare for this?
Foothills Flood Relief fund
As a reminder: Foothills United Way has established a Fund for the victims of this flood. The name of the fund is the Foothills Flood Relief Fund and that money will be used for housing and human services and will ALL stay local in our communities…just like our long term recovery fund for the fire. Please do share this URL: www.unitedwayfoothills.org/floodrelief or go to www.unitedwayfoothills.org and follow the links to donate. PLEASE DO SHARE THIS INFO WITH ALL OF YOUR GROUPS!
2.) 2-1-1 has been activated. If you know of anyone that has any questions about evacuation sites, routes, donations, road closures etc. they can call 2-1-1 in the Boulder area to get help.
