Thoughts and prayers for Colorado this night as at least 4 dead and 80 missing...

[icymist]

From an earlier article:

Colorado flooding so bad, authorities worry about 'what we don't know'

Hundreds of people were airlifted Friday out of flooded mountain towns in Colorado, where authorities raised the confirmed death toll to four and feared for many others stuck without food, water or power.

As crews worked around the clock to rescue the stranded – including 85 fifth-graders who were on a school trip – there were amazing stories of survival and escape.

“I had three boat rides, one surfboard, a motorboat and a canoe,” Nancy Coleman said of her flight from water-logged Longmont.

A visually impaired man walking in Denver with his service dog was swept into a drainage ditch and pulled out four blocks later by a police officer and paramedic. Emergency workers used a zipline to bring a woman to safety at Big Thompson Canyon.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/13/20469449-colorado-flooding-so-bad-authorities-worry-about-what-we-dont-know?lite

Map of the flood warnings and watches in Weld County:

http://forecast.weather.gov/hazards/bou

The NWS Radar image for the area is out:

http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=ftg&product=N0R&loop=yes

They're calling it the worst flood in 500 years!

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R! I have family in Colorado, keep looking at maps...

[icymist]

2. 212 photos of three days of flooding in Colorado!

http://www.weather.com/news/colorado-flooding-emergency-photos-20130912

[Warpy]

7. Shit. Just shit.

I'm about halfway through them. There have been flash floods here in NM, where we got that rain as it traveled north, but no one has died and there aren't any road closures that I know about. There are usually rock slides with stuff like this and I suppose that's next around here, but we've gotten off very lightly compared to the mess up north.

Most of that runoff from Boulder will travel east. The Rio Grande will get our runoff plus all the runoff from southern Colo, so that might be a problem late in the weekend.

And, as of an hour ago, we had another shower. It's not over yet.

Should I mention that it's also chilly with this stuff? I feel bad for the students in Boulder bailing out their dorm. That's got to be truly miserable.

[icymist]

3. Colorado Front Range Flood Hazard Maps

Click on the City of Boulder and then drag the box to the left around to see how wide spread.
http://floodsafety.com/colorado/index.htm

[Cha]

4. Climate change! My heart goes out to

those in Colorado(that happens to be my home state) in harm's way.

thanks for the report, icymist. This is the first I've seen of it.

[icymist]

5. You're very welcome.

My roommates are from there, Boulder in fact, thus the research for my internet-challenged friends!

[ReRe]

6. There, but for the grace of God, go I...

This can happen to any of us. Stay safe, everybody.

[Paper Roses]

8. Amazing pictures. Sad for all those struck by this storm.

My problems are so minor compard to what the residents of Colorado towns face. I wish them all well and safe.

The clean-up? Where to start?

[malaise]

9. Frightening indeed

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2521

Colorado's epic deluge is finally winding down, as a trough of low pressure moves across the state and pushes out the moist, tropical airmass that has brought record-breaking rainfall amounts and flooding. Devastating flash floods swept though numerous canyons along the Front Range of Colorado's Rocky Mountains Wednesday night and Thursday morning, washing out roads, collapsing houses, and killing at least three people. The flood that swept down Boulder Creek into Boulder, Colorado was a 1-in-100 year event, said the U.S. Geological Survey. A flash flood watch continues through noon Friday in Boulder. According to the National Weather Service, Boulder's total 3-day rainfall as of Thursday night was 12.30". Based on data from the NWS Precipitation Frequency Data Server, this was a greater than 1-in-1000 year rainfall event. The city's previous record rainfall for any month, going back to 1897, was 9.59", set in May 1995. Some other rainfall totals through Thursday night include 14.60" at Eldorado Springs, 11.88" at Aurora, and 9.08" at Colorado Springs. These are the sort of rains one expects on the coast in a tropical storm, not in the interior of North America! The rains were due to a strong, slow-moving upper level low pressure system to the west of Colorado that got trapped to the south of an unusually strong ridge of high pressure over Western Canada. This is the same sort of odd atmospheric flow pattern that led to the most expensive flood disaster in Canadian history, the $5.3 billion Calgary flood of mid-June this summer. The upper-level low responsible for this week's Colorado flood drove a southeasterly flow of extremely moist tropical air from Mexico that pushed up against the mountains and was lifted over a stationary front draped over the mountains. As the air flowed uphill and over the front, it expanded and cooled, forcing the moisture in it to fall as rain. Balloon soundings from Denver this morning continued to show levels of September moisture among the highest on record for the station, as measured by the total Precipitable Water (PW), which is how much water would fall at the ground if the entire amount of water vapor through the depth of the atmosphere was condensed. Four of the top eight all-time September highs for Precipitable Water since records began in 1948 have been recorded over the past two days:

[intheflow]

10. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

I've been so lucky even though I live smack-dab in the middle of the area. For some reason, our tiny little town hasn't expereinced anything like the towns around us, must be built on just high enough of a land hump here one the plains. But evacuations, road and bridge wash-outs, and massive flooding is happening to all the towns surrounding us. My boyfriend's old neighborhood -where he lved before moving here - the next town over was evacuted last night. I'm having Katrina flashbacks seeing the footage (I did disaster recovery down there for two years). Aything anyone can do to help my poor state, I cannot thank you enough.

[icymist]

11. I know it's bad out there, but Katrina bad?!

Wow! That blows my mind. The roommates are on the phone all morning calling friends to make sure they're alright.

[intheflow]

15. We're not getting the hurricane winds,

but the water damage feels the same. Most of the damage I saw in homes was 1-5' deep water lines. We'll be seeing the same here; there's a foot water mark on my neighbor's house and our water was gone from our streets the morning after the big rain. I've already seen people in a neighboring town dragging out barstools and couches covered in mud. And the scope of dmage in my neck of the woods is miniscule compares with Boulder, Lyons, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins and Greeley. People are being helicoptered out, public water supplies are compromised, and environmental disasters abound (we're a huge oil and gas area). Also, you must understand that my experience of Katrina was in Mississippi, not New Orleans. The only things saving us from having the loss of life that Katrina did is the lack of sustained winds and a much smaller population per square mile affected. This, like Katrina, is "a disaster of biblical proportions" - according to NOAA.

[icymist]

16. Wow! You stay safe!

My roommate just talked with her stepmother who is in Boulder and seems to think that they can ride this out. That conversation took place last night (9/14) and today I see this in a headline:

Officials to flood-hit Coloradans: Leave now or face weeks without supplies
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/15/20503891-officials-to-flood-hit-coloradans-leave-now-or-face-weeks-without-supplies?lite

This is, indeed beginning to remind me of Katrina. It will be interesting to see if the people that leave will be allowed back into thire homes when this is all over. Or if they'll get those formaldehyde smelling trailers to live in that FEMA gave the Katrina survivors.

[intheflow]

17. Evacuations 150 miles up and down the Front range, and 150 miles into the plains.

By various reports, 1700 people have been rescued and anoterh 13000 have been unaccounted for. One woman was stuck in her home, no cell phone coverage so people went to get help. When they returned, the house was gone. And we got another 3" of rain at our house today.

[icymist]

18. 13000?! The house AND the woman was gone?! My god! Stay safe!

This tweet just came up on my breaking news feed:
17,494 homes damaged, 1,502 homes destroyed, 11,700 evacuated, 1,253 unaccounted for, 26 shelters, says @COEmergency in Colorado - @9NEWS

http://www.breakingnews.com/item/ahZzfmJyZWFraW5nbmV3cy13d3ctaHJkcg0LEgRTZWVkGNqNpRQM/2013/09/15/17494-homes-damaged-1502-homes-destroyed-1170

[intheflow]

19. 1300. I typo'd.

But yeah, it's bad. The rain's finally let up. We're still under a flash flood warning for another two hours but it's only a precaution, and only scattered showers are expected in the region. So hopefully it's getting better and the danger (to my area) is passing.

[icymist]

20. I pray you are right.

Stay safe my friend.

[leftstreet]

12. DURec

[HappyMe]

13. Damn, that's bad.

[gopiscrap]

14. Yeah prayers and hopeful thoughts go their way