Southwestern Colorado flooding destroys homes and strands residents, worse than last year's flooding
Floodwaters peaked on Friday in southwestern Colorado, with communities across Archuleta, Conejos, La Plata, Mineral and Rio Grande counties affected. The flooding also led Gov. Jared Polis to expand a disaster emergency declaration for the area to include Conejos County.
Approximately 100 Coloradans were evacuated by Friday, and many Coloradans are stranded in their homes due to surrounding floodwaters.
Video shared with CBS Colorado shows a Pagosa Springs house inundated with floodwaters. All that can be seen is a small piece of the roof and the chimney.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I tried. I really tried. But this one was bigger than the last one," Pagosa Springs resident Chris Mott says in another video of water rushing through a neighborhood. "It moved sandbags and everything."
Mott's attempts to save his neighborhood from the rushing water with sandbags proved futile as raging floodwaters destroyed homes, flooded bridges and left neighbors stranded in communities across southwestern Colorado.
The Colorado National Guard dispatched a Black Hawk helicopter to help rescue two people stranded in an RV Friday. Nearly 100 guard members are assisting in air and ground search-and-rescue operations, including crews operating two helicopters for aerial rescues.
"Just a few days ago, that was just a little trickling creek," Pagosa Springs resident Angel Thrasher told CBS Colorado.
Thrasher lives in the Aspen Springs area of Pagosa Springs, where a tiny creek has turned into a raging waterway.
"We're part of the river," said Eddie Anderson, general manager of the Rio Grande Club & Resort.
In South Fork, the Rio Grande River rose more than 6 feet, surrounding the Rio Grande Club & Resort's fishing lodge.
"Normally it's about 30 yards away from the deck here at the fishing lodge, but it's definitely overflowing its banks today," said Anderson. "This morning we woke up, got out here, and we saw that really, literally, it was running underneath the deck that we're on right now."
Flooding did reach homes near part of the course, but the main club sits on higher ground. Anderson says he isn't worried about the fishing lodge, even though it's surrounded by water.
"We've got a good system here. This actual building has a sump pump underneath it, which prevents flooding," said Anderson.
In Archuleta County, the San Juan River rose nearly 10 feet in just two days, with surrounding rivers and creeks swelling, too.
"It's still just raging. It's, my road's still closed. We have no way in or out," Thrasher said.
Officials describe the flooding as catastrophic, and worse than the floodwaters that devastated the region one year ago.
"This year, it's definitely become much more of a flood event for us," said Anderson.
"This is way more, way more for the whole town," Thrasher said. "It's shocking. Our community is kind of flabbergasted about the whole situation. Never expected a situation like this."
The good news is that water levels are going down after peaking early Friday morning. However, Rio Grande County emergency management is warning that floodwaters are still moving east through the county.
The silver lining in times like this is how communities step up, Thrasher says, with Pagosa Springs restaurants feeding evacuees and first responders and neighbors supporting each other.
