Early Thursday, we tapped our Public Insight Network for stories on how people in Boulder are coping with the rain and the flooding. Below are some of the stories we heard in response.
And the replies are still coming in. If you have a flood story click here to share how you're affected and any related photos.
11:05a Friday
Many people in central Boulder and to the east have it worse than me (right now), but I have a giant ditch behind my house that I have never seen so full of water (a raging small river now), it's typically it's 2 inches deep & a foot wide.
Very close to my foundation.
Boulder is my home...
I love this place more than anything. I take people on bike tours and show it off! This is breaking my heart. My Beautiful Boulder.....
With tears
-Andrea Tollefsrud
8:13a Friday
Tonite I'm staying with friends since my house near Baseline Road in Boulder was totally overcome by torrents of floodwaters that came from nowhere and yet everywhere. My home that I've gradually bit by bit over 10 years upgraded and improved, bringing the yard along from a weed patch to a flowing garden, abruptly reduced to a near worthless, sodded disaster in a matter of hours.
Roiling muddy floodwaters burst through the back fences, tearing and gouging the yard, seeping through the ground floor and threatening to carry all our vehicles down the raging current that was once my street. With no flood insurance, I have no idea how to recover from this loss of a lifetime.
Property I was confident I could have sold within a few weeks to jump start my retirement is now destroyed and very likely under water both literally and financially. My lovely place of pride and refuge most likely a total loss. I can feel the deep psychic trauma percolating up through my core threatening to undermine my total existence.
I'm nearly homeless, far from home, plucked from my life with only a few bags, no car, no way to return to work, all my routines and activities upended with absolutely no idea of what I will do next. Worst of all, this is the same story so many of my friends and neighbors are experiencing right now with the same desperation as so many Coloradans did during the fires.
My entire community has been struck by the unthinkable tragedy of this disastrous flood. So much loss, so much horror.
What will we all do now? How will we rebuild some semblance of what we had? Is it even possible at my age?
My partner is across the world in Norway preparing his professional mountain bike team for the biggest championship race of the year. I felt so bad calling him in the middle of his night to tell him everything we have here at home is about to be lost, and to tell him I don't know if there will be anything left of our home when he does return in two weeks. He called one if his best friends a few mules away in Rock Creek to come and get me as it was the only thing he could do to help from so far away. And that is how I came to be saved, even though we had to walk many blocks through fierce currents to get to his car which would carry me to calm safety.
Though maybe not so calm now as I wonder what will become of my life.
Suddenly I'm a part of a community I never in my 60 yrs EVER imagined I would be a member of. Nothing in my well managed life has prepared me for this-it's always happened to other people. Now I will be focused on all the details and mechanics of recovery and sharing and learning w others in my situation.
-Sue Butcher
6:59p Thursday
6:54p Thursday
My daughter and I live in an apartment on Boulder Creek near 28th Street in Boulder and were evacuated today around noon with sirens, now we are in Steamboat Springs enjoying the calm and beauty of the high mountains. We went on HW 93 and just missed the wash out along Coal Creek so I feel lucky to have gotten out.
-Heather Sickels
3:02p Thursday
1:21p Thursday
12:22p Thursday
11:27a Thursday
11:39a Thursday
While I feel fortunate because I know there are others dealing with worse situations, we are feeling a little helpless and like our efforts to bail, vacuum, and pump the water out if our basement are rather futile.
My husband and I are already discussing how to take shifts through the night to keep more water from coming into to our basement rooms.
It's been a long day already and we are preparing as best as we can for an even longer night.
-Tammy Stewart
11:10a Thursday
We are dealing with flood waters at our vegetable farm. ... Our irrigation ditch overflowed and is now gushing water into our irrigation holding pond. Our holding pond has also overflowed and there are rivers of water running through our fields and crops.
We're trying to block the intake for our holding pond to stop the flow of water. We've also been busy moving our tractors, etc to higher ground. Many of our crops are under water and we're not sure if they will survive all of this water.
-Amy Tisdale
11:09a Thursday
11:05a Thursday
10:52a Thursday
10:41a Thursday
Where I live in Boulder Heights is closed due to land slides. Back side of Left Hand Canyon (our alternate route) is closed as well due to a portion of the road being washed out. We are locked in. I am a volunteer fire fighter so I'm getting news first hand. No pictures to show as no one is allowed out.
-Lauri Beckwith
