County in southwestern Colorado prepares for rain
Communities in southwestern Colorado are preparing for several inches of rain through Friday morning, with officials around Pagosa Springs drawing on lessons learned from historic flooding last year.
Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux said recent weeks have already brought unusually wet conditions to the region.
"The contrast in seasons over the last 60 days has been significant," Le Roux told CBS Colorado.
Heavy rain has already caused problems in the county, including a washout on County Road 500 late last month.
"The last six to eight weeks have been unprecedented, or much like last year, which again created historic flood data," Le Roux said.
Last September, five days of rain sent the San Juan River to two dangerous peaks, causing damage in areas east of Pagosa Springs and around the community's well-known hot springs.
"Some river restoration work has been done. Certainly, our Public Works Department has worked hard over the last year to restore everything back to where we would like to see it, but over the last 6 weeks, we've had an inundation of rainfall that has created certain issues," he said.
Le Roux said that experience has helped emergency officials prepare for the latest round of storms.
"We've had the benefit of that foresight," he said. "We've made face-to-face contact with everybody that was affected by the floods last year. We've identified a sheltering location ahead of time so that we're not dealing with that if and when we do need to make those evacuations."
Archuleta County has also brought in a machine capable of producing about 100 sandbags an hour as officials prepare for possible flooding.
"We procured a piece of equipment from the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management that has made Mass sandbagging a lot easier, and so, using volunteer search and rescue members yesterday, our Public Works Department and the Sheriff's Office, we started ... pre-bagging, and we've got, you know, groups of sandbags delivered to key areas within the county ahead of time, and made that available for the residents. And, in addition to that, the self-serve option is always available, so you can bring your own shovel. The bags are free, the sand is free. But the pre-filled bags are there for those that aren't able necessarily to do that as an individual," Le Roux said.
Attention is also focused upstream, where the San Juan River descends from the Wolf Creek Pass area. Le Roux said monitoring conditions about 12 to 13 miles away can provide officials with some early warning.
"We do have some snow in the high country," Le Roux said. "I understand it's going to be warm, potential for rain up there, and so there's potential for additional snowmelt to increase that level."
The San Juan River is currently expected to peak Friday morning.
