It is a whole year, nearly to the hour, sincerely I began to understand the breadth and depth of our 1000-year flood here in NE Colorado. We had had big rain for several days. The flood started, up in the mountains, and late in the evening of Sept. 11, but only locals up there knew. There was no media coverage yet - nor had any meteorologist forecast anything close to what happened, except one TV weather lady I learned later! At 2:45 a.m. on the 12th, I was wakened by a recorded reverse 911 call alerting people that flooding was occurring. Having been sound asleep, I was irritated, because I live a mile from my river - and a lot uphill. Since I was now awake, I went to my door and opened it, to see what was going on. Living in a lower walkout level, I dont hear rain unless it is accompanied by high winds or lightning and thunder. The opened door revealed that the rain was coming down heavily, and the new fire warning siren, by the river, was blaring - steadily! With such heavy rain, it was pitch black outside - impossible to see anything without a strong flashlight, so I went back to bed, still wondering why I had been called. There were minimal reports on the morning news - nobody really knew how bad the flooding was then. So after breakfast and morning chores, I went outside and was happily pulling the large weeds and sunflowers that had taken over the firebreak in front of my house. They pulled easily with the ground so wet. Then a neighbor lady drove up my driveway on her ATV to tell me what she knew: That Hwy 36 was cut on both sides of our road, and Apple Valley Road, our only other route out of our valley, was still flooded with 3 feet of water! She said I should drive down to Hwy 36 - that a lot of people were there who knew more. After she left, I turned on the TV to see many huge military trucks evacuating the town of Lyons, just 3 miles from me, because they had no power, water, sewer or communications! Much damage had been done near the 2 rivers that meet in Lyons, including the destruction if the sewage plant and much other infrastructure. That made the entire town uninhabitable! When I drove down the road, there were only 2 people there and they were heading uphill to the first of what became twice daily meetings of Valley residents for purposes of communication. Information was only beginning to trickle in. I went back home and turned the TV on, only to have the power go out! It wouldnt be back for two weeks. Then my daughter called, but it cut out while we were talking. It and all other forms of communication were out for 2 months. My Internet had been through the phone line, and cell phones never work well here and were completely gone at that point. There were quite a few helicopters flying around by that time, and even more by the next day. At the Saturday morning meeting, we were told that FEMA had too many totally stranded people to care for, and they had been working very hard to repair the flood damage to the road through Apple Valley, which was now above water. There was one lane open, and they wanted people to leave but didnt require it. But if we stayed at home, they would not help us. I have too many health issues - and no generator to keep heat, water and fridge going, so I spent the rest of the day packing and went to my sons house for 10 days. I felt very safe, because a Chinook helicopter kept buzzing me, watching my progress. Another storm was coming, which created fears that the temporary fix to Apple Valley Rd would get washed out. They wanted us to hurry, and I wasnt doing so, at least by their wishes. Now, a year later, hwy 36 blasting and rebuilding will be completed by the end of September. People with good insurance, jobs and money are mostly recovered. But many have gotten little help, and some will not be allowed to rebuild their homes as they are considered to be in locations that are too flood prone. Others have to pay $40k and more to have their homes raised and put on stilts! Neither FEMA nor insurance will cover those costs, or even a penny to help people whose basements flooded, because the water came in from outside. Few of those people ever dreamed they would need flood insurance! In short, there are still years worth of repairs left to do, and many of us have lost much money, jobs and homes, with no way to replace them. I am struggling to find money for my washed out driveway, sinking barn and well which is suffering from decreased water supply in spite of the flooding and massive precipitation throughout the last year. One would think the supply of water would be greatly increased, but there are many stories of changes throughout the region! The amount of work involved in all this - plus too many other things going on in my life - have me overwhelmed, still. The Long Term Flood Recovery people have finally gotten to me, but many of the organizations they are working with have requirements very similar to FEMA and the insurance companies, so it is not clear that I will be able to get much help at all. So my life, like many, many others, is still flooded out! And this happen in all disasters, which are increasing in strength and frequency all around the world, as Global Warming and Climate Change increase. That is one reason we really need to be all over Climate Change like ugly on an ape, as the saying goes. The longer we wait, the more expensive the fixes will be, and many fixes will no longer be possible! In addition, the costs of disasters will multiply, food production will be/is being affected, as will the economies of the whole world. More and more people keep being born, and yet employment rates will also decrease due to Climate damage. Whole countries will have their populations forced to move, creating unrest like we have never seen. In fact, some of that is going on already! It will be much more expensive to leave fixes for Climate Change for later than getting on it right now. And governments will mostly be responsible for getting it going. It is therefore crucial that we all learn which candidates are willing to tackle and support that work - and vote for them this Fall! The U.S. cannot be a laggard - we must be in the lead on this to get the world to really go along. It isnt too late, but it soon will be. Please go to LCV.org to learn about the environmental candidates in your area. That organization has been collecting that info for all national candidates for something like 40 years! They are good at it and know what they are doing! Election Day is sooner than we think, so please, get on this, and inform your family, friends and colleagues, too. We need to get out the vote, as mid-term elections do not usually bring out many voters! Good luck to all of this for good results in this very crucial election!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 22:42:18 +0000
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