The water rose in the black of night.
At 2:20 a.m., over the emergency broadcast system at Lyons High School, a voice warned of flash flooding on the St. Vrain. Sirens blared. Residents knocked on doors, hurriedly packed, hoped for the best.
In Jamestown, deeper in the mountains of Boulder County, emergency notification calls stirred residents awake at 2:17 a.m. Water and boulders roared down Little Jim Creek. The one-room elementary schoolhouse became a shelter. A man was presumed dead after a single-story yellow house collapsed.
The 100-year flood — or was 500 years more like it? — had come.
Within hours, both towns were islands. A deluge even the National Weather Service described as bearing biblical proportions had swallowed highways and roads into Jamestown and Lyons, isolating the communities hit hardest by the Colorado floods of 2013.
"We have been preparing for this 100-year flood, which is so overdue," said Mary Huron Hunter, whose 110-year-old house in Lyons is two or three blocks from the water's reach. "And here we are."
Rain continued to fall Thursday night in both communities; both Lyons and Jamestown remained under flash-flood warnings.
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, her boyfriend and her 16-year-old daughter left their home two blocks from South St. Vrain Creek in Lyons after their across-the-street neighbor banged on the door at 2 a.m.
Hitchcock wore blue striped pajamas. She was on crutches from a recent hip surgery. She left with a computer, an overnight bag and a 16-year-old border collie that grew up on a fishing boat in Alaska.
On Thursday afternoon, from the vantage point of a friend's house on higher ground bordering open space, Hitchcock could peer through the trees to see her house had suffered, at the least, serious damage.
A trailer park two blocks away appeared completely lost, she said. Powers lines were down.
Alex Nuñez unloads the freezer in his room at the Silver Saddle Motel in Boulder after overnight rain flooded the room where he has lived with his wife, Felicia, and their 28-month-old son Michaelray for about nine months. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)
The smell of gas was in the air."This is unreal," said Hitchcock, a public radio reporter. "So, I am looking down ... I can see our roof. The water, it kind of looks like the chocolate river from 'Willy Wonka.' And it's fast."
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment advised residents to boil water for drinking and prepare to potentially be isolated for up to 72 hours. Xcel Energy cut off power to almost all of the town.
The grounds of Planet Bluegrass, where folk and bluegrass musicians pick and play below red rock cliffs, were covered with water, said Brian Eyster, who does marketing for the organization. Planet Bluegrass' president, who lives on the property, was evacuated, he said.
Despite
reports it had been wiped out, the St. Vrain Market survived the night but took on water, residents say. Owners Connie and Neil Sullivan turned the keys to the business over to those helping displaced residents in the 2,000-person town and said, "Take anything you need." At Lyons Elementary School, a shelter for evacuees, people rested on gym mats and sipped herbal tea. Neighbors brought water, clothes, dog food, diapers and kids' socks to replace soaked footwear. A town doctor scrambled to find needed medication.
"Most people are saying the things you'd expect them to say — 'At least we are safe, I'm glad we got out of there,' " said James Hart, an addictions counselor in Lyons. "People are OK now. But what is it
Casey Roy, 9, looks through a window at the damage in her family's basement in north Boulder. Floodwaters reached about 3 feet. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
going to look like in 48 hours if people can't get in and out easily?"National Guard vehicles with supplies managed to get through flooded state Colorado 66 into town, the water reaching up to the headlights.
"This seems more like Armageddon than the storm of the century," said Julia Herz, whose backyard looks onto an inundated water-treatment plant whose failure made drinking the town water unsafe.
A 16-mile drive away in Jamestown, Jason Servetar was awoken early Thursday by a emergency notification call, followed by a call from the local school.
The Internet was working, so he got online. On the Jamestown Quick Topic Bulletin Board, a community clearinghouse, messages about babysitters wanted for hire and a 1991 Honda Civic for sale were overtaken by anxious questions and offers of shelter.
2:23 a.m.: Anyone know where Dee & Andy are?
3:13 a.m.: Just say the word, my Jimtown Family and we'll be there picking people up and bringing them to safety at our house...when the roads open ... whatever is needed...we LOVE YOU!!!
9:40 a.m.: I am just Heart Broken ...
The town of fewer than 300 residents was ordered to evacuate, but how? All roads leading in and out of Jamestown were washed out.
"You know what it's like to be in a theater with surround sound, that deep rumbling?" said Servetar, 45, whose home was cut off from town by a mudslide three football fields long. "That is what we hear."
County officials communicated with Jamestown by radio. Neighbors on high ground brought dishes to about 50 evacuees at the school.
The person who was killed is believed to be a 72-year-old man who until three years ago owned the town's only store, the Jamestown Mercantile, said Mary Ellen Burch, the town clerk.
Burch is also the school custodian and a volunteer firefighter.
end quote from:
Lyons and Jamestown: Two towns, islands in the Colorado floods