Recent Flash Flooding, Mudslides In Cameron Peak Burn Scar Are Just The Beginning
LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- The Cameron Peak Fire is over but its impacts are still coming down the mountains. Over the 4th of July weekend, roads were washed out, including Black Creek Road in Glen Haven.
"Yesterday, I was standing on top of the culvert here and I started hearing big water and I looked over here and there was a propane tank floating above road level," Polly Bennett recalled.
Along with that propane tank, rocks, boulders and other debris were also coming down. Dozens of residents up the road will now have to go around a back route to get out.
"We can get less than half an inch of rain and it causes a flash flood," Bennett explained.
Larimer County Commissioner Jody McNally came out to inspect the Glen Haven area.
"So it's my word of the summer, hydrophobic soils, and what that is, is when the fire burns so hot, and so fast it makes this crusty layer on top of the burn scar."
Rain water may have nothing to hold onto for hundreds of thousands of acres. Some of the wildfire came dangerously close to homes.
"It burned this entire mountain down to within 25 feet of my house," Bennett showed CBS4's Jacqueline Quynh.
McNally is working to figure out what the county can do to help as well as how to apply for emergency watershed protection.
"We have such a large burn scar from the large fire that we have a lot of work to do," McNally explained.
There have been about 3 flash flood warnings in the area over 9 days, some of them leading to widespread flooding. The reality is, this is only the beginning after last year's historic wildfires.
"They're saying this might be a problem for as many as 5 years," Bennett added.