Ark Building Time...

[Lord Jim]

I have several friends living in Boulder and Denver; one has had to evacuate from her house...

At least 4 dead, thousands evacuated as Colorado flooding cuts off mountain towns

Floodwaters cascaded downstream from the Colorado Rockies on Friday, spilling normally scenic mountain rivers and creeks over their banks and forcing thousands more evacuations in water-logged communities beset by days of steady rain.

The relentless rush of water from higher ground turned whole towns into muddy swamps and threatened to strand hikers and some rural residents into the weekend. In at least one community, pressure from the descending water caused sewer grates to erupt into huge black geysers.

All the while, rain continued to fall, causing flooding across a wide rugged area stretching from Denver to Fort Collins.

The overflowing St. Vrain River cut the town of Longmont in half. Evacuation requests were issued for some neighborhoods, all major roads were closed and several thousand homes and businesses were without power.

"This one's going to bring us to our knees," said Tom Simmons, president and co-owner of Crating Technologies, a packing service that had its warehouse inundated. "It's hoping against hope. We're out of business for a long time."

National Guard troops were working to evacuate more people who had become stranded in Lyons and other communities in the foothills.

About 60 miles of Interstate 25 east of Loveland were closed Friday from north of Denver to Fort Collins because of flooding from the St. Vrain and Big Thompson rivers, transportation officials said.

So far, at least four people have been killed and another was missing. Hundreds more were forced to seek emergency shelter up and down Colorado's heavily populated Front Range, which has received more than 15 inches of rain this week, [Boulder got over 7 inches in just one 24 hour period]according to the National Weather Service.

That's about half the amount of precipitation that normally falls in the foothills near Boulder during an entire year.

Boulder County spokesman James Burrus said 17 people were unaccounted for Friday. But, he noted, that doesn't necessarily mean they are missing.

"It means we haven't heard back from them," Burrus said.

Late Thursday, warning sirens blared in Boulder, and city officials told about 4,000 people living along Boulder Creek to head for higher ground.

Debris and mud coming off the mountainsides had backed up water at the mouth of Boulder Canyon, causing the creek to rise rapidly, authorities said. The creek began to recede after midnight, but the conditions remained dangerous, Police Chief Mark Beckner told the Daily Camera newspaper.

Randy Hicks, the manager of Rocky Mountain Anglers in Boulder, said the city is filled with tree limbs and debris and blue patches of sky are a tease for residents in the area.

"Right now I'm talking to you and the sky has blue patches," he said in a phone interview. "But I look south and to the west, and I see the rain clouds."

Hicks lived in Boulder for 18 years and said he’s never seen such devastating weather.

"The ground seems like it hit its saturation point," he said. "It's like a sponge that's already filled with water; we can't take anymore."

The entire hamlet of Eldorado Springs, home to about 500 people, was also urged to evacuate because of a flash flood and mudslide threat along South Boulder Creek, Burrus said.

In Fort Collins, neighborhoods along the Cache La Poudre River were evacuated overnight, with the river expected to rise to nearly 2 feet above flood stage Friday, according to the weather service.

The city closed bridges after water began topping Seaman Reservoir in the Poudre Canyon. Residents were warned to stay clear of the river.

South of the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater, Jefferson County deputies went door-to-door in Morrison and Kittridge, asking hundreds of residents to leave their homes as Bear Creek neared flood stage. The amphitheater was in no immediate danger.

In Lyons, residents took shelter on higher ground, including some at an elementary school.

Three convoys rolled out of the isolated town Friday, carrying smiling and waving residents past cheering crowds at the roadblocks.

One of those onlookers, Holli Stetson, said she was looking for her father, Jerry Boland, who did not evacuate with his wife.

"With no bridges and too much water, there's nowhere to go," Stetson told the Denver Post. "We're just getting more worried by the minute."

The weather service warned Friday of more flash flooding in Loveland. In the town of Drake, the Big Thompson River was more than 4 feet above flood stage. The Big Thompson caused the deadliest flash flood in state history in 1976, when about a foot of rain fell in just four hours, killing 144 people.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/09/ ... z2euL2Mtpk

[Lord Jim]

Colorado Flood: Rescue efforts ongoing for hundreds of people still unaccounted for; death toll rises

A 60-year-old Cedar Cove woman was believed to be the fifth person killed in this week's historic flooding in northern Colorado as authorities scrambled Saturday to reach hundreds of people listed as unaccounted for.

Rivers continued to flow well above flood stage, prompting orders for mandatory evacuations on both banks of the South Platte River in eastern Morgan County, including the towns of Orchard, Goodrich, Weldona and Muir Springs. Thousands living in the flood zones were displaced.

The South Platte was nearly nine feet over flood stage at Kersey Saturday morning.

"It is no doubt an epic event," said Weld county commissioner Sean Conway. "It is a once in 500 years or 1,000 years situation."

Heavy rains and hail also prompted warnings and flooded streets in parts of Adams, Arapahoe, Denver and Douglas counties.

Throughout the area, rescue teams continued their efforts. Boulder County doubled the number of rescuers Saturday to around 800, authorities said.

"There might be further loss of life," Boulder County sheriff Joe Pelle said in a news conference. "It's certainly a high probability...With an army of folks and an air show we're hoping to reach everyone as soon as possible."

Seven helicopters continued rescue trips in Larimer County, evacuating 1,200 people stranded in Pinewood Springs between Lyons and Estes Park along U.S. 36, and 100 people in Big Elk Meadow off Larimer County Road 47, the Boulder Daily-Camera reported.

By the end of the day, 15 helicopters were in service to reach stranded residents in remote parts of Boulder County, including many who weren't able to contact relatives because phone service was down.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ ... naccounted

Colorado governor's chopper rescues flood victims, plus a dog and cat

Things have gotten so bad in Colorado that even the governor is rescuing people.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said his helicopter crew stopped to rescue four stranded people, a dog and a cat while he was on his way to a news conference Saturday to brief reporters on the disaster.

Yet hundreds more remained stranded, with the death toll poised to rise as the news Saturday otherwise remained grim.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow ... 7690.story

[oldr_n_wsr]

I am sending good thoughts (aka prayer) their way. I hope all those "missing" turn up ok.

[rubato]

Strange weather we're having. Ain't it?

[Lord Jim]

Thanks rube, I've been waiting for your Obligatory Global Warming Post....(I'm surprised you didn't figure out some way to blame this on Reagan)

You may not be right about much, but you sure hit the nail on the head the day you bragged about being predictable...

[dales]

Even a busted clock is right twice a day.

[Econoline]

Sorry, rubato...I think it was my turn to do the Obligatory Global Warming Post and I guess I dropped the ball. (I was so busy learning about the role of climate change in the Syrianr revolution that I guess I just lost track of whose turn it was....)

I guess I'll have to make it up to you with 2 OGWPs about the next Climate Disaster.

[Econoline]

BTW...if anyone here clicked on that link* in the above post, you could find a simple, clear explanation of how the Colorado (and other) flooding is directly related to global warming:

The temperature difference between the poles and the equator results in global wind patterns that greatly affect weather.

Hot air rises, creating a low pressure area. The temperature difference creates a pressure difference between the poles and the equator and that pressure difference causes air to move from high pressure areas to low pressure areas near the surface of the earth.

Because the earth is rotating, the air doesn't move in a straight line. Curves to the right in the northern hemisphere and the opposite in the southern hemisphere. This curvature to the right generates the jet streams, which are high altitude winds which circle the earth - sort of a boundary between the upper and lower atmospheres - so these winds typically move from west to east and there will be some waviness, but not like what is happening now.

Warming Faster at the Poles Means Lowering Temperature Differences World Wide
With the elevated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere there is more absorption of the heat that is leaving the earth so it's trapping that heat and causing an overall warming. In the Arctic the white of the sea ice and snow on land reflect the heat. But as the ice and snow melt, the poles absorbs more heat causing the Arctic to warm. North of 66˚ the rate of warming is 2-3X the rest of the planet. As you move north, the increase is magnified more - 4, 5, even 6 times.

Because the Arctic system is warming faster than the rest of the planet, it's lowering that temperature difference. So there is less of a pressure difference and less need for the air to move northward. This slows down the jet streams.

As they slow down the land-ocean temperature difference increases and the jet streams get much wavier as they slow down and they tend to get locked into position relative to where the oceans and continents are. This is important because jet streams guide weather and storms. And because overall temperatures are warmer, there's more evaporation from the oceans and more water vapor in the atmosphere.

More Moisture and More Energy and Slower Air Movement = Bigger Storms Here and Drought There
For every degree Celsius increase in temperature there's 7% more water in the atmosphere. It rises, cools, condenses, and forms clouds. When it forms clouds, it releases energy. So more water vapor and more energy in the atmosphere means more intense storms. And the storms are moving slower, so if you have a massive storm system carrying huge amounts of water, it's not moving as quickly as it used to move. That's why certain areas get massive torrential downpours. In Canada this summer this led to flooding in Banff and Calgary - a $3 billion event - and a month later the same thing happened in Toronto. They had 3 inches in an hour, 5 inches in an evening. Those cities don't have infrastructure that can handle that. Manila recently had 2 feet in a day or two. While they are used to monsoons, normally it would be 1 foot in a week or two.

At the same time, these storm systems depositing large amounts of water on specific regions means that water is not traveling to other regions where it used to go. They are getting less than normal rainfall because storms are sticking and not traveling as far and as fast.

*(That was an Alaskan blogger's synopsis of a talk he heard by University of Ottawa climatologist Paul Beckwith, concerning how the melting in the Arctic affects the rest of the planet. I left out the part about Syria.)

[Lord Jim]

I left out the part about Syria

Aw, gee whiz Econo, did you have to leave that out?

I was so looking forward to reading it....