Evergreen area takes a pounding from big Colorado storm; couple forced to stay on hood of truck "for about 2 hours"

Rough weather rolled over the Colorado community of Evergreen on Wednesday night, swelling Bear Creek and tributaries and tossing debris and mud into homes and downtown.

"People's loved possessions from up the hill have been deposited in our place and I'm sure some of our stuff for sure is off in Bear Creek at some point," said Jared Stigge, who lives in nearby Kittredge.

Troublesome Gulch lived up to its name and sent water into homes in the area. Stigge and his wife fled to higher ground as the storms blew over near midnight.

"I waited for a while and maybe I waited too long, but eventually it had gotten high enough so I was like 'I gotta wake her up we gotta make a plan and get out of here.'"

They fled to higher ground as the rain poured down.

"We knew that we might get wet or cold but we would be safe as long as we'd get up the hill, so that's why we climbed up there and just waited it out. But it was touch-and-go there for a while," said Stigge. "There's just so much sand, silt, debris, rock, that's been washed out onto the yard. Obviously our bridge; The abutment is gone."

Nearby, Marty Nelson and his wife took refuge in their garage as the swollen creek surrounded their house. They were prevented from getting out of their garage after water buckled the door. But they picked a high spot on their pickup as water and mud pushed in.

"We couldn't even get to our car because we would have been swept away so we stayed on the hood of our car for about two hours," said Nelson.

"It was insane how much damage was caused and how much water actually came down."

Officially there was 3.55 inches of rain, but in some spots it seemed like more. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said there was 6 inches of rain that took slow-flowing Bear Creek from 6 cubic feet per second of flow to nearly 1,900.

It clogged Evergreen Lake with debris. Evergreen Metro District, the community's water provider, issued a boil water order late day after running it by the State of Colorado as required, but noted there were only specific areas near Stagecoach Road where the water quality was bad. The district had been able to clear organics from the intake in the morning enough to limit problems, but was stuck fixing broken mains near El Pinal and Troublesome Creek.

At Cactus Jack's restaurant and bar downtown, it was a reminder of the 2013 flood.

"This one just came roaring. I mean it was coming over the spillway. The whole island over by the spillway was covered," said owner Megan Mitchell.

The difference was that in 2013, water raged for days. This was brief, but violent.

"This is your basic like bottleneck right here at Cactus so the water came flowing over the concrete patio. Thankfully, we had the concrete this time instead of the deck patio," said Mitchell.

There was heavy damage in 2013, but this time they were better prepared. Workers were busy Thursday clearing mud and fans were set up to dry things.

A restoration company was on its way.

"I don't think we'll be down for very long," said Mitchell.

At Switchback in Kittredge, Darryl Swarts said they would put things back together quickly as well.

"We'll be back in business soon enough," he joked.

Then he joked they would offer a new ice cream flavor next week named "Mudslide."