twobjshelbys Posted September 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2013 Mixed results today. At the town meeting the state hasn't changed much. Some people in town let alone remote areas are still isolated with the only out being a helicopter. Still on evac order. My wife left but I'm staying for at least one more day to better prep house for extended absence Some rea electric customers east if town have had power restored so they are back to normal. Some even have to go through tow. To get to their property so cannot yet return. Some are o. The river that flooded to the west but because of their position on the inside of their bend did not get high water and so ce they are also on rea power are back to normal with well septic and power. One subdivision in town to the east has electric but still no sewer or water and all three is what is needed to return. It doesn't matter since the evac is still happening around us helicopters are everywhere. Huey's were e dry where and smaller ones (they called them Blackhawks but of that size) were landing on Main Street My wife left today but I'm staying for a few more days. Rumors of looting continue. I'm blocking all ground level windows with paper. I don't know if that will slow them down by not being able to see or make them think there is something g worth hiding Things were looking good yesterday. Crews are everywhere. Two of the local quarries are hauling scrap sandstone to help stabilize some of the bridges like the one next to me and rebuild the approaches to others. I know these guys personally and know that noone - town state fed FEMA - will ever see a bill for their truck time or materials. This is part of why I live in a small town Then all hell broke loose. Starting at about 8:00 it started to rain and in earnest. Since I'm staying and we had stopped collecting water I resumed filling pails. I filled up the jetted tub of about 50 more gallons and have about 25 more in the pails on the porch. Rain water is pretty treatablewith a hot dose of chlorine and only and needs no filtering since roof goo like little rocks and nails stay on the bottom. We got 1.25" new rain today (recall 7.75 at the end of the primary storm). Since button rock is at the top all water from the huge watershed is directly to the river so it is now back up about a foot maybe more since I looked at about 10:00. The result is that al work on stabilization and repairing approaches is suspended for now Another thi g I don't remember if I mentioned yesterday. We've all been saying "xxx's house is gone." To most of us it means severely damaged beyond repair. Well there's a different meaning. Curt's house is also gone. But this "gone" is the other definition. Curts house is missing. The river has rechanneled in at least 4 places I can see. Curt's house was the victim of a widening of the riverbed. I estimate at least 100' of former stable bank is now riverbed That's all I can think of right now. Maybe more later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
07SGT2899 Posted September 16, 2013 Report Share Posted September 16, 2013 sorry to here all of this. stay safe and god bless you. we went through a "100 year flood" in my area 2 years ago. luckily we live up on a big hill and weren't affected but just down the hill from my house , about 1 mile away was devastated from the flooding of the Mohawk river. it took over a year for things go get back to normal. the power of water is astonishing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted September 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2013 Not much has changed yesterday. There are may e 50-70 people left in town. I've been using a friends place who is outside of the town in boulder county but adjacent to the town limits. He in not on services so he is o. A well and septic system a d using a generator for elect. He is also on a complexly separate utility (city of Longmont). Last night just as the three of us were finishing dinner his power came back on so its operation as usual for him. But the town guards won't let him pass through. We're trying to get a pass so he can leave and return I've been taking pi turds like crazy and have volunteered to be the official town photog. I have previous service with the town - town board of trustees and many years as chairman of the planning commission - and know many of the officials and am thinking of applying for a grant to document this Have to run to a meeting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywickedshelby Posted September 17, 2013 Report Share Posted September 17, 2013 stay safe Tony and all those in harms way. Prayers continue for you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2010KonaBlueGT Posted September 17, 2013 Report Share Posted September 17, 2013 Man. We're just getting some of the first 'decent' pics of the area this morning (clear, sunlit, more coverage). It's a LOT worse up there than I thought. I knew it was bad but nothing like what I saw on the news early this morning. You guys be careful up there. It looks like it will take MONTHS, if not YEARS to get back to any normalcy. Hang tight...... Phill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_GT350 Posted September 17, 2013 Report Share Posted September 17, 2013 Sorry to hear this Tony, prayers continue.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moncho Posted September 17, 2013 Report Share Posted September 17, 2013 Best of luck to all that have been impacted. I've been very fortunate as I live in the southwest part of Denver, been getting a lot of rain as most of the front range but nothing like the places that have been mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blown Away Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 stay safe Tony and all those in harms way. Prayers continue for you all. +1 Hope everything works out for you Tony! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 I was up in Estes all last week on Vacation, lost water, Land phone & Cell on Thurs morning, no way out with Estes flooded, Rt's 34 , 36 closed. Finnaly the water reseded enough Friday Morning to get across the one bridge on Rt 7 to escaper across Trailridge rd, Rocky Mtn State Park & head down 40 to 70 back into Denver with a crap load of backed up Traffic at the Tunnel. Flew out Sat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffJ Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 I was up in Estes all last week on Vacation, lost water, Land phone & Cell on Thurs morning, no way out with Estes flooded, Rt's 34 , 36 closed. Finnaly the water reseded enough Friday Morning to get across the one bridge on Rt 7 to escaper across Trailridge rd, Rocky Mtn State Park & head down 40 to 70 back into Denver with a crap load of backed up Traffic at the Tunnel. Flew out Sat. Wow, glad you made it out and are ok. 34 and 36 are the major routes to this area of Colorado. They are saying that it may take over a year to even possibly rebuild the roads in areas of these canyons. There are areas where the river literally took out all surfaces where the roads were. These are areas where the ground is solid rock which no longer exists to place a road where the river has now been redirected. Now only exist solid canyon walls. I have no idea how they are going to accomplish rebuilding some of these canyon roads over 1-2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted September 18, 2013 Report Share Posted September 18, 2013 Wow, glad you made it out and are ok. 34 and 36 are the major routes to this area of Colorado. They are saying that it may take over a year to even possibly rebuild the roads in areas of these canyons. There are areas where the river literally took out all surfaces where the roads were. These are areas where the ground is solid rock which no longer exists to place a road where the river has now been redirected. Now only exist solid canyon walls. I have no idea how they are going to accomplish rebuilding some of these canyon roads over 1-2 years.Yeah, the Town took a beating as well with the flooding that ran thru all the shops & streets.we were in Boulder the previous Sat. & hiked the Flat Irons before heading up to Estes, what a shame, going to take a lot of rebuilding. Everyone I talked to out there said "It never Rains like this!" So much for heading out West to get away from the crappy Northeast rain we were having... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted September 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 This has turn into one of those "all the help you need into all the help you can stand" things. The river has rechanneled around the location of some water lines that run in the riverbed. I think there are some sections in it and other crossings for both water and waste water. There are breaks in lines where the pipes were undermined and joints in the span that are no lo get supported. Now they have to wait until the army corps of engineers decides what to do with the channels - leave them or rechannel back. This will take two weeks or more. Then the repairs happen but if they rechannel then a whole new distribution system has to be designed. Add another 6-8 weeks. This could be well into winter or spring before we can return. If they can get sewer we would be ok since we could haul enough water to survive in the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffJ Posted September 19, 2013 Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 The unknown damage still lurks also. The news said that there were over 50 bridges completely destroyed or damaged, but I'm guessing that the number will be much greater. Heck, out where I'm at this happened yesterday. I'm guessing that we will continue seeing this type of damage for some time to come. This is just a small creek which runs behind my house. This is about 1/2 mile down the road from me where it crosses under the road. The water was about 3 feet above the road twice last week. Obviously undermined the wood framework that was there previously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydub2k Posted September 19, 2013 Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 Good Luck Tony, and everyone take care. We were blessed in Littleton, no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeljgt500kr Posted September 19, 2013 Report Share Posted September 19, 2013 Since we are still getting rain here, yesterday I had to pull a FedEx truck out of the deep sand and mud that is our county road, which when it rains is a running arroyo with a couple feet of water in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HARALD KELLEY Posted September 22, 2013 Report Share Posted September 22, 2013 Mother nature! God bless everyone. Stay safe and prayers for a speedy recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted September 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 In all of this sometimes I get a chuckle. I'm working helping a friend get his hardware store back on line. Last week we tore everything off the floor (and consequently, much of the floor tiles) put it outside on the parking lot and washed mud off what could be salvaged and tossed everything else. We filled a dumpster with things like saws, weed eaters, wood trim that got soaked, and other stuff. Especially hard hit was things like grass seed and fertilizer. Washed off things like lawn edging. It's a small town hardware store in which you can actually buy one bolt. The first three rows of bins of bolts and nuts are full of mud. I've been cleaning and oiling them and putting them back. During all of this we had a water source. It wasn't clean water by any stretch (you wouldn't even think of drinking it). My friend's brother (and partner) owns an excavating company and was filling his water truck from a hydrant. Yesterday they shut off the water to the property at the meter (which was on the same line). We tried to explain to them that we'd been using it for over a week and fully understood the consequences but they wouldn't turn it back on. Later in the afternoon, at about 1:00, a guy from the subcontractor that runs our wastewater and water system drove up. The conversation went something like this: Him: Did you fill that tanker truck from the hydrant over there? Me: [noting I never witnessed it being filled personally] I don't know for sure where he got it but that might be the case. Him: You know that water is full of e-coli Me: [looking into a pail that has brown water with leaves and other stuff in it] Yeah, and it's probably got a lot of other sh** in it too Him: [no response from the pun] I just don't want you to get sick Me: [i've been using this water for over a week now] I'm just cleaning bolts If the bad stuff isn't in the water it certainly is in the mud I'm cleaning... Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted September 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 I've been helping clean lonny's nuts. It was raining this morning early but by 9:00 or so had lightened up enough to make me go down. By noon it was raining and cold so I called it quits for the day. I went down to my daughter's place to try to sort pictures on the camera and watched the last Dome for the year (it's like we are in our own dome here). I got a call from a number in Puerto Rico so let it go to voice mail. It was our FEMA guy. He needed to see the house since we are evacuated but had no flood damage. He said there are people making claims that don't even live here and/or have well/septic so aren't eligible for anything. We will get some temporary living but it's not much and I will give it to the guy I'm staying with who we agreed will get more than that. Then I went to my friend's auto shop. He was there while his son did a brake job on a Honda in the dark. We did have a couple of our whiskey drinks. There are about 5 or 6 aid agencies here in town. They are going through the flood hit homes and gutting them. They pull all the flooring and drywall up to 4'. All that is left is studs. Of course the "crawl space" which is just dirt on most of these homes is filled with mud. I took some pictures for him. It was hard. I will try to find their names as they are kamikaze teams that come in and do damage control. They are amazing. I drove around for about 10 minutes looking at the hardest hit areas with Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb turned up on the car radio as loud as I could get it. I'm beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norton Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Thanks for the updates, Tony. Keep your chin up and stay safe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HARALD KELLEY Posted September 30, 2013 Report Share Posted September 30, 2013 I've been helping clean lonny's nuts. It was raining this morning early but by 9:00 or so had lightened up enough to make me go down. By noon it was raining and cold so I called it quits for the day. I went down to my daughter's place to try to sort pictures on the camera and watched the last Dome for the year (it's like we are in our own dome here). I got a call from a number in Puerto Rico so let it go to voice mail. It was our FEMA guy. He needed to see the house since we are evacuated but had no flood damage. He said there are people making claims that don't even live here and/or have well/septic so aren't eligible for anything. We will get some temporary living but it's not much and I will give it to the guy I'm staying with who we agreed will get more than that. Then I went to my friend's auto shop. He was there while his son did a brake job on a Honda in the dark. We did have a couple of our whiskey drinks. There are about 5 or 6 aid agencies here in town. They are going through the flood hit homes and gutting them. They pull all the flooring and drywall up to 4'. All that is left is studs. Of course the "crawl space" which is just dirt on most of these homes is filled with mud. I took some pictures for him. It was hard. I will try to find their names as they are kamikaze teams that come in and do damage control. They are amazing. I drove around for about 10 minutes looking at the hardest hit areas with Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb turned up on the car radio as loud as I could get it. I'm beat. Sounds like despite your own issues you are making a difference in others. I am sure many recognize your help. Hope all goes well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Fest Posted October 27, 2013 Report Share Posted October 27, 2013 Twobjshelbys, Just checking in. How are you all doing now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted October 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2013 Part of town got to go home today. That is the part north of Main Street. A friend just got his electric today so it's not too consistent. We will not be home until thanksgiving or thereabouts. I was talking last night with the wife of my friend who got power today. They will demolish and start over with whatever they get from insurance and FEMA. At least they have reconciled it mentally. After talking g with her on the way back to my temporary home I listened to pink Floyd comfortably numb (again) on the iPod on Bluetooth cranked up to vibrating the door on the truck The cnn tv truck was here yesterday but I never saw what they put up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted October 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2013 I have been loading pictures but have not yet been able to load them to pjotobucket. Our internet is slow and when I go to my daughters who had cable it's not on my list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NMAv Posted October 27, 2013 Report Share Posted October 27, 2013 I hear some of the roads will be down/inaccessible for years. It was just an amazing amount of water. Glad your safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted October 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2013 I hear some of the roads will be down/inaccessible for years. It was just an amazing amount of water. Glad your safe. I'm told that US36 from Lyons to Estes is mostly open. That doesn't mean it's anything more than a paved 4wd road. The road bed isn't along the original route, it's just "there". So passable but not tourist grade. My Ford GT/GT40 friend's favorite road up Highway 7 to Allenspark to the Peak to Peak will likely be a year or two before we want to take our cars on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted October 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2013 It was creepy today. I went to my house that now has electricity and for some reason the Dish box is alive (even though we ware not "on line") and I was watching "This Old House". They are doing the Hurricane Sandy rebuilds in New Jersey. Today they were pounding pylons and otherwise raising homes. Some of them were being put up 10 feet over their original grade. Some of our homes will have a new grade of between 2-4' above where they are now. Some will be able to jack them up (one of my roommates right now) and another (my best friend and his girlfriend) will scrape off and go up at least two feet. And the Broncos wupped ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted November 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 We finally got to go home on Friday. My best friend's house will be demolished tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffJ Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 Is your home ok Tony? Power and Heat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twobjshelbys Posted November 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 Is your home ok Tony? Power and Heat? Yes. We were always out of the flood waters. Our house is one of the highest in town, even above the flood stage if Button Rock Dam had gone (although houses below us in the same subdivision would have flooded according to the models). We were out because the entire town had no services. Much of the infrastructure, i.e., electric, water, sewer, gas, were below the flood stage. in our case our water, sewer and electric ran under the river bed of the St. Vrain and were compromised as was the case in most of town. Our area was complicated by the fact that all of ours start on public rights of way and then run into a private property. It took some time to renegotiate a new temporary right of way. Finally sorted it out and it delayed our return one week. We were the last areas that were not directly affected by flood water to go back. The remaining areas that have not were in the major flood area and some will be two or more years before they can go back, if ever. A few of the areas are eligible for what is called a 404 program - they convert all of the damaged properties into a "green belt" and allow for a "trade" for new land elsewhere. I'm involved with the group trying to put it together. I was a member of and chairman of our planning board for nearly 10 years and have a lot of context for where some places might be good replacements. It is really sad to see what happened. We all watch Katrina and Sandy from 2000 or 3000 miles, but when you're chest deep in muck and mire and know somewhere around half of those who got destroyed it really hits home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grabber Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 So glad to hear your place is okay and that you will finally start back to normal.....in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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