Environment
LYONS, Colo. — Formerly paved streets are now dirt roads. No people live at Riverbend Mobile Home Park these days, nor will they. Many businesses reopened this month; others, like 123-year-old Loukonen Bros. Stone, are struggling.
This town of about 2,000, where north and south tributaries meet to form the St. Vrain River, is a microcosm of the aftermath of September’s Colorado flooding.
From Estes Park west of Lyons to the agricultural plains to the east, residents continue trying to clean up mud- and water-filled homes. Local governments are assessing damage to infrastructure, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars for many cities and counties. Most roads are finally open for the winter, but they still need work beyond temporary fixes, and others remain closed.
The floods that hit Colorado on Sept. 12 destroyed 1,850 homes — more in a couple of days than were destroyed by four major wildfires in the past three years. Thousands more homes were damaged.
Nearly 28,000 people have registered for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So far, individuals have received $54 million in FEMA assistance, the Small Business Administration has issued more than $70 million in low-interest loans, and the national flood-insurance program has paid out more than $43.5 million.
Despite that, the road to recovery is rough.
Loukonen Bros. Stone has provided flagstone for buildings at the University of Colorado, the Denver Botanic Gardens and elsewhere since 1890. Located on the St. Vrain River since the 1930s, the scenic setting proved devastating.
“It destroyed all our trucks, our office, our equipment,” said Mike Loukonen, 60, the company’s general manager and vice president. “Our maintenance building washed down the river. A forklift ended up upside down in the river.”
FEMA doesn’t help businesses, and Loukonen, part of the fourth generation of his family to run the business, isn’t sold on taking out a low-interest SBA loan.
“We’re trying to just do it yourself or go out of business,” Loukonen said.
The firm can still provide flagstone and other materials from its quarry. But only one of five specialized cutting machines is working, with workers trying to clean and repair the others.
Loukonen is trying to look at the bright side.
“In the wintertime, we slow down quite a bit,” he said. “We have a little bit of luxury of time in the winter to recover. Everybody’s in the same boat up here. You just deal with it and keep on going.”
“So many people have just given up,” said Molly Morton, 45.
Morton’s house above Lyons was high and dry on Sept. 12, becoming a refuge for up to 18 people at one point. More than two months later, eight are still there.
Rental homes she owns along the river in Lyons and up the canyon in Big Elk Meadows were severely damaged. She carries everywhere an accordion file with documents on the damage because she’s negotiating with insurance companies, FEMA, the SBA and her mortgage company.
“The burden of dealing with this is an absolute nightmare.”
At Cleaning Fairies, her business in Boulder, the floors are bare concrete. The carpet was yanked out after water poured in under the door.
Bookkeeper Risa Vandenbos, 41, is one of the Riverbend residents whose trailer was destroyed. She used a chainsaw to get inside and retrieve her belongings. She recently signed a yearlong lease in Longmont, 12 miles east, but hopes to return to Lyons.
“All the affordable housing was wiped out by the river,” she said.
Farther east, in Weld County, the South Platte River washed away larger trailer parks in Evans and Milliken.
“Many of those homes were immigrant families, undocumented families,” said Sonia Marquez, a coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “They have many language barriers.”
Many of those residents are facing higher rents and feel reluctant to interact with federal authorities because of immigration status. Marquez said five Weld County churches are leading the charge to help the families, many of whom are cramming into cheap hotel rooms or apartments with friends and family.
Along U.S. 36 west of Lyons, piles of rubbish sit alongside the road — furniture, mattresses, appliances, destroyed trees and brush, even a ruined car. The cabins at Shelly’s Cottages, a tourist lodge along the St. Vrain, are nowhere to be seen. Bridges to the other side of the creek are gone; tree trunks, guardrails and large chunks of asphalt litter the riverbed.
U.S. 36 opened between Lyons and Estes Park in early November after several National Guard divisions helped the Colorado Department of Transportation rebuild. There are still rough areas, and concrete barriers keep vehicles from steep drop-offs where the road and shoulder washed away.
The last of the state highways to Estes Park reopened Thursday. But the tourism season that peaks in September and October is over.
Still, there are signs and T-shirts for sale in town that read “Mountain strong.” At Moraine Meadow in Rocky Mountain National Park on a recent weekend, cars parked along the road, and people got out to watch a herd of elk grazing.
Ann and Lee Swanson of Fort Collins sat on rocks near the road where their teardrop camping trailer was parked. Printed paper signs on either side of the trailer read “Thank you CDOT-Guard.”
“We are up here and had lunch in town, just trying to support the community,” said Lee Swanson, 58. “We went into Estes to have a beer and some fries, and it’s probably the busiest I’ve ever seen it. It was packed.”
The pride of Colorado’s Front Range is the outdoors — miles of trails for hiking, running and biking, renowned rock climbing and roads to the mountains that offer a training ground for professional athletes.
The flood wiped out many of those trails and roads, limiting access to outdoor enthusiasts, even in eastern flatlands.
“What took us 20 years to build in terms of our parks and greenways took two days to be destroyed,” Longmont City Manager Harold Dominguez told a legislative study committee Nov. 18 about his city’s network of recreational paths along the river.
The city’s infrastructure damage totals about $132 million, Dominguez said. And a bigger concern is getting access to reservoirs that provide the city water supply and cleaning debris from them to ensure clean water for the city and agriculture.
In the Boulder County foothills, bicyclists are accustomed to making long climbs up paved county roads. One of the most popular, Lefthand Canyon, remains closed to everyone but residents.
On Nov. 10, the county decided to open Fourmile Canyon Drive to bicyclists from 8 a.m. to noon. Alex Hyde-Wright, an engineering assistant for Boulder County, estimated seeing at least 50 people in the first 40 minutes that he rode up and down the road.
Cyclists expressed appreciation for the brief opening.
“It’s pretty nice of the county to do this, to get one last ride in before the season’s over,” said Jesse Heibel, 23.
A week later, the county permanently opened that road and one other to cyclists during daylight hours. Most hiking trails in the city of Boulder are open too, though some north of town may be closed for months.
And for those looking to replace their belongings, a road bike sits inside the 4 Mile Store in Boulder, along with plenty of outdoor gear and other goods. To help flood victims, Lynne Fetterman revived the used-goods pop-up she created during the 2010 Fourmile fire. The store accepts donations and offers the goods for free.
“It’s an affluent community, and there’s so much excess,” Fetterman said. “No one should feel like they’re going through this alone.”
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