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Appendix B Newsletter INewspaper Articles PALISADE, COLORADO ARTICLE NO.1 Daily Sentinel Tuesday, September 18,2001, Volume 111 No. 176 By Marija B. Vader and Mike Wiggins, The Daily Sentinel Xcel Energy crews scrambled Thursday afternoon to restore power to 200 customers on Orchard Mesa after a quick and intense thunderstorm blew through the Grand Valley. Lightning struck several places throughout the valley creating about 15 outages stretching from Fruita to Palisade, said Wade Haerle, Xcel spokesman. The storm arrived about 2:30 p.m. The largest outage affected homes on Orchard Mesa, between Lyndon Road and Unaweep Avenue and between the Gunnison River and 27 1;4 Road. Power was restored 30 minutes later. "We have small nuisance outages all over the place and our crews are out there restoring them as quickly as possible," Haer said Thursday afternoon. In Palisade, heavy rains created a mudslide on to the westbound on ramp and off ramp of Interstate 70. Colorado Department of Transportation crews quickly scraped the mud away. "When I got here, torrential rain was coming off the side of the mountain," said Andy Scott, code-enforcement officer for the Palisade Police Department. Every year, a storm sends a mudflow down the road, said Palisade Fire Chief Richard Rupp. At the Peach Bowl, Palisade High School varsity soccer players were covered in mud from their waists to their feet Thursday afternoon during a game against Glenwood Springs. The storm left pools of water on low ground in Palisade and Clifton. In Clifton Village South subdivision, rainwater stood 2 feet deep at the intersection of Bunting Avenue and Sara Lane east of 32 Road. Neighborhood children rode bikes and scooters through the pool, laughing as they sprayed themselves with water. Adults were not as jovial, though, as the flooding washed leaves grass and mud into their yards and driveways. Residents blamed a bad drainage system they say was replaced earlier this year. Tammie Anderson, who lives at 3205 Bunting Ave., said Mesa County in February installed a concrete culvert above the ground to try to funnel water to a canal that runs south of her home. Anderson said the county offered to by a portion of her property to install the culvert and a pipe. She turned the county down offering instead to help keep the culvert and drain clean so water can flow freely into the canal. But while Anderson said she is constantly armed with a rake and shovel, she and the other neighbors claim the county hasn't kept up its end of the bargain. We have not seen one truck come out to clean that," Anderson said reaching down at one point into the murky water near the drain and pulling out a handful of sticks and wet newspaper. "The way they did this is ajoke." Andrea Patrick said the problem grew so severe that she wrote a letter last year to state Rep. Gayle Berry, R-Grand Junction. "N 0 one wants to come out and fix the problem," said Patrick, who lives across the street from Anderson at 3204 Bunting Ave. "The county blames the state, the state blames the county and nothing gets done. Workers from the Mesa County Road and Bridge Department came out to the subdivision Thursday to survey the flooding, but left before the water subsided to a couple of inches in depth. T: \Projects\6844888 _ CWCS _Flood _ Doc_ Rpts\Su b _ 00\6.0 _Proj_ Deliv\Report\Append ix S.doc T: \Projects\6844888 _ CWCS _Flood _ Doc_ Rpts\Su b _ 00\6.0 _Proj_ Deliv\Report\Append ix S.doc