THIS IS WHAT MY BUDDY SAID
We're all high and dry in the NW quadrant of Loveland, but carnage reigns barely 15 minutes from here where the Big Thompson river has effectively split the town in half - north from south. And trust me, Boulder, as bad as it is, isn't the half of it. Except for rescue helicopters and some cell phone or ham radio contact, mountain towns like Jamestown, Lyons, Nederland, Drake, Glen Haven, Estes Park and dozens of others remain almost completely cutoff from civilization. Rescue operations by air now exceed that of the Katrina event.
The scope of this thing is so widespread, it defies imagination. Many north/south roads and highways from the outskirts of Denver all the way to the Wyoming border are - or have been - closed. The major river basins - The Cache La Poudre, Big & Little Thompson, St. Vrain, and all their tributaries - drain the mountains from west to east and feed into either the North or South Platte Rivers, both of which have swollen to ten times their normal size. The devastation is 14 counties wide. Roads, homes, farms, businesses, and bridges are gone or underwater. From the air, northern Colorado looks like a massive lake studded with islands where ever high ground exists.
It seems almost Biblical in its magnitude and, in fact, some TV meteorologists have declared it a 1000 year flood. Whether or not that's actually true, I don't know, but it's like nothing we've ever seen. We've already received more rain in 4 days than the entire state averages in a year. And it continues to fall. It's scary.
All that said, we are incredibly fortunate to be safely out of reach of all of it. Unless something more dramatic compromises Loveland's power and water distribution systems, we'll be fine. Even if the grid goes down we're all well prepped with emergency food & water storage, heat, light and cooking appliances. We just wanted to let you know not to worry for us. Instead, pray for all those caught in this catastrophe.
