Superior woman could lose home to flooding after surviving Marshall Fire

Her house survived the Marshall Fire but a Superior woman says she could now lose it to flooding.  

"I'm the original homeowner. I've been here 24 years, so I've seen it all," says Barb Preskind, who has seen enough devastation over the last eight months, to last a lifetime.

Last December, her house was damaged in the fire, "My fence burned and the siding is melted."

Now, flooding threats her home, "My property started eroding because of all the water coming from the hill behind us."

Her neighborhood sits at the bottom of a hill and part of the drainage system that once diverted water from it melted in the fire, along with her neighbor's house.

Boulder County removed what was left of the home, leaving a crater in its place. But, with all the heavy rain, the north wall of the abyss has started to give way, threatening to take part of Preskind's property with it. She says the soil adjacent to her house has dropped three inches in just the last couple weeks.

"You can see where the black line is, how much it's dropped and it's dropped the gas meter."

Since the county dug the pit, she figured it should stabilize the property. She says she asked for sandbags to stop the erosion.

"They said we've done thousands of these and we know what we're doing. There shouldn't be any problems. They weren't going to do anything."

Preskind says Xcel Energy fixed the gas meter, which she says had pulled away from the house and started to leak, but she says she can't afford to hire someone to fix the erosion.

"I have so many damages to my house already that insurance is not willing to cover and my out-of-pocket is a lot so I don't know if I can afford to have an engineer come out and fix this before I have more problems... so I'm just kind of at a loss."

CBS4 reached out to Boulder County for comment. Communications Director for Boulder County Public Works, Andrew Barth, told us he would send an inspector to Preskind's house by Wednesday.at the latest. If the county caused the problem, he says, it will fix it.