Colorado flooding

[dairy mom]

This news story has become personal for us.  My son and dil live kind of in the area the flooding is happening.  They are far enough away that they are most likely safe.

But my dil's job has taken her into the flooding area.  I don't completely understand what she does but it involves working with farms to make sure they do things in the best manner to protect water quality.

At 5 mountain time this morning she was called to a dairy whose manure system had breached.  My son told me they received 7 1/2 inches of rain at that site yesterday.   He had called me to tell me that the farm believes that lost half of their baby calves to the flooding.  Son knew that would get to me because the babies are my job here.

But the long and the short of it is this puts my dil in a dangerous area and I will be a nervous wreck until I know she is safely home with my son.

Please pray for the people dealing with this terrible situation.

[dairy mom]

off the roads and hopefully she will get to stay there till she go home.

[Kay/NC]

Thanks for letting us know that she's safe.

If she works for USDA, it is very likely with NRCS, which deals with natural resource isues, like water quality. It may, of course be a state or local agency that deals with the same thing. here in NC, we work with both.

It is very sad when our stewardship of both land and animals fails, and head are lost. The waste containment can be re- built, if it ruptured, or be pumped down if it only breached. If the storm's precipitation exceeded their 25-year 24- hour standard, the breach should be forgiven. That has historically be the federal standard.

Farmers used to be helped in such emergencies. Now, government is more likely to punsih us. They give us a standard,we perform to it, and then get punished when their engineering is wrong. It is just plain ridiculous.

[dairy mom]

no she doesn't work for the government.  She works for a private company that helps dairies with the designs and plans and layouts. 

One report I heard said it was the worst flooding ever in that area.  Don't know if that is true because there have been a couple of real bad ones in the same general area in the last 40 years or so.

If you've never been in a mountainous area and seen how the terrain handles excess water you'd would be surprised.  The beautiful canyons that we all love so much about the mountains become funnels of destruction when fill with water.

I was 12 or 13 years old when flood waters came down out of the mountains into the Denver area.  That flood caused damage all the way into Nebraska on the Platte river.  Anyway my dad took us to where we could see the water coming down out of the mountains.  It was literally a wall of water moving down the river.  I so clearly can remember watching the water knock a huge radio tower down like it was match sticks.  The power of nature is awesome.

[chore girl]

So sorry to see that your family is in the flood area.  They are calling it a 100 year flood and I can't remember a flood like it. The Big Thompson flood comes to mind, but they say it only lasted 4 or 5 hours and they expect heavy rain well into tomorrow.  Lyons is cut off in all directions and the only way out of Estes Park is over Trail Ridge.  But, the National Guard was finally able to head into the flooded areas late this afternoon.  Flooding in Denver, too. Some kid caught a big fish that was swimming down the street in Aurora.  I hope that your family and the others come through it okay.          

[Suey73]

Glad to hear she is out of danger again.   At least for now.  Hard to believe the rain they are dealing with.  Your father did you a real favor helping you learn the power of nature.   

[linda/IL]

Just lost one calf to the respiratory virus we brought in & that breaks my heart but to lose half?! Oh my! I suppose it was a large dairy but that still hurts. Glad your DIL is safe. Vacationed years ago in Colorado & loved it but never thought of the mountains & flooding. Hope not too much damage.

[Kay/NC]

Have never been in the mountains in a flood...here in VA, there was one that killed 90 people in one county. I was old enough to remember and be stunned by that.

We are transitional coastal plain to piedmont( foothills) on Mike's place, with a big tributary of the Nottoway River on the back side. There are extremely steep slopes down to that " Stony Creek". Even a heavy thunderstorm on a summer afternoon can drive flash floods up into the trees down there...twenty feet deep or more.

In NC in 1999, we got 18 inches out of one hurricane in one night. Coffins were popping out of the ground and floating away.

That was half of the rain we got in three weeks, out of three storms..three feet in three weeks. You never saw so many trees blown down, due to the roots being saturated and then being hit by high winds for hours on end, over and over again. We would start to recover from one storm, and the next one would hit.

I feel for these folks. Water is the worst danger, and someone always seems to forget that fact. Saw reports this morning that three have died, so this is nothing to take lightly, for sure.

[Ruby Lou]

I remember the Big Thompson canyon flood.  Had been there a year or two before with my parents.  A couple from the next town over from ours here in Iowa were there in their cabin and lost their lives.  I didn't know them personally, but sure think about it everytime I pass their former home.  A gal that went to school here has opened her home to anyone needing a place to stay.  I am not sure how far she is from the flooding.  I don't know exactly where my cousin's live out in the area, I am sure I will hear today from my mom.

[dairy mom]

My son is now at New River Station NC  just outside Jacksonville.  When we found out that was where he was going I googled it and pictures of that horrible flood came up.  Makes weather an even bigger obsession for me.  Now not only have the 2 girls in Florida but my baby is in that area that suffered so that year.  Hope the hurricane season stays inactive.