Pilgrim?

[godofthunder]

 Here's hoping for a nice dry house when you get home! Floods, landslides I'll take snow any day.

[Lightyear]

 I *think* Lake Mead is on the wrong side of the Rockies, Buzz 

    In *this* case it turns out that I am smarter than a third grader! 

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/change-the-course/colorado-river-map/

Although, I must confess I had to do a little research to make sure 

Checks this out on Lake Meade's shrinking water level:

http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/drought-lake-powell-lake-mead-climate-change-20130818

[Dave W]

Here's hoping for a nice dry house when you get home! Floods, landslides I'll take snow any day.

Same here.

[Lightyear]

Same here.

I've spent my entire life here on the gulf coast and I have lived through countless major floods, rode out two hurricanes and have boarded up and evacuated far too many times.  I'm not a big fan of snow but when I retire it will be some place out of the flood zone and I'm snake bit enough that no matter where I retire to I will always settle on high ground.

[TBird1958]

  In *this* case it turns out that I am smarter than a third grader! 

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/change-the-course/colorado-river-map/

Although, I must confess I had to do a little research to make sure 

Checks this out on Lake Meade's shrinking water level:

http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/drought-lake-powell-lake-mead-climate-change-20130818

 Boulder is on the East slope.....So I think we're feeding the Mississippi....Either that or I gotta lay off the Percaset (Had a Root Canal yesterday)

[Lightyear]

Well, Crap!  You may indeed be right even under the influence!

Says on Wiki that the head waters are La Poudre Pass Lake - here's the map:



Still not that far off - at least I updated my Colorado geography skills 

[the mojo hobo]

The Colorado river runs through the Grand Canyon, and then to Lake Mead. Most of the State of Colorado drains to the Mississippi.

[Pilgrim]

It eventually drains into the gulf of CA at its northern tip - but many years it's so heavily used that there is no outflow.

I'm home and checked everything - house is in good shape, no leaks.  We only got another 3" or so of rain while gone - but the situation west of us is extremely bad.  Thousands of people are our of homes, at least six are known dead, and Estes Park is essentially cut off - about 17 miles of the road going up that canyon have been stripped to bedrock.

It's still raining outside.

Preliminary announcement is that CSU will be open tomorrorow, but it's a daylight call for them.  Many employees are homeless or can't get to campus because of roads washed out.  Boulder is much worse....it appears the worst rain happened in an area from Longmont to Boulder and north to Estes Park.

Here's a link to our local newspaper - plenty of info.  http://www.coloradoan.com/

Here's a gallery of photos: http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/us/colorado-flooding/

[drbassman]

Glad you're safe and dry.  My brother-in-law is in Erie, not far from Longmont, but he's on higher ground.  His office in Boulder was flooded, so it's all depends on where you live/work.

[Pilgrim]

Latest numbers tonight...1500 homes wiped out.  8 known dead, more than 600 missing but the missing numbers are dropping as more phone signals come back into service. More than 500 "Blackhawked" out of cut-off flood areas tonight.

The road to Estes Park up Big Thompson Canyon may be out of service for more than a year - the sheriff said that it looked like 17 miles of it were washed out to bedrock.



Here are some photos from the canyon:









Lots of photos by the Denver Post at:

http://photos.denverpost.com/2013/09/14/photos-colorado-flood-damage-aerial-views/

[Dave W]

Al, which highway to Estes Park is that?

[Pilgrim]

Al, which highway to Estes Park is that?

There's one main highway - Highway 34, which comes from I-25 through Loveland and goes up the Big Thompson river canyon 20+ miles to Estes Park.  There is a smaller road (Highway 7) that goes through other mountain towns, but it adds close to 2 hours to the trip.  The third option is Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in the US, which goes through Rocky Mt National park and over the mountain to the far side.  It's closed due to snow about 6-8 months of the year.

The road that's wiped out is the main highway up the canyon...same canyon that has a flash flood in 1976 which killed around 140 people.  It's a VERY deep and rocky canyon, and much of the highway was elevated on piers above the river - which wasn't enough in this event.

Here are a couple of pix showing how spectacular, rocky and narrow the canyon is in many areas.  Take that road out, even in the areas where the canyon bottom is 100 yards wide (about as wide as it gets in much of its length) and there's not much to drive on.

[Dave W]

That's the one I've been on, although it's been many years. That will be a huge reconstruction project.

[Highlander]

Terrible thing to say, but someone is going to profit from it...

[Pilgrim]

Terrible thing to say, but someone is going to profit from it...

The company that rebuilds the road(s) and bridges will provide a lot of jobs for a few years.