Residents Rebuild Homes, Community: Pueblo Chieftain

Home Browse Search

The Pueblo Chieftain Online I Friday wysiwyg : //43 /http: / /www.chieftain. com /monday /news /display. php3 ?article =8 i °M ° establisned here," she said. Winterfest Guidebook All their homes share an interesting feature now - they Spring Runoff stand 5 feet off the ground on concrete -block foundations Pueblo Zoo that are supposed to keep the next flood at bay. FOCUS ON YOUTH: The height is required for anyone building or repairing a Headbone Zone structure that was more than half- damaged in the flood, Images designed to prevent the same thing from happening next Classroom Chieftain time. School District 60 School District 70 Another change in post -flood North La Junta is the 40 or Pueblo Library District so vacant lots sprinkled across the small, unincorporated community. The empty lots are the result of a relocation program in which the owners of flood- damaged homes were allowed to sell their houses to the county and move elsewhere. The county tore the houses down an now nothing can be built there. Other signs of last year's flooding are the building materials and equipment scattered across the community. Buckets of drywall joint compound, building permits and sheets of plywood and sheet -rock are part of every other house as owners work to repair or improve what the flood left them last year. The rebuilding is taking place on a larger scale, too. A nearby bridge that was destroyed in the flood is being rebuilt, as is part of the dike that broke under the strain of the rain - swollen Arkansas River. Federal officials repaired another stretch of levee earlier this year and extended it north to better protect the community. Another portion of the levee may be extended east later. "A year afterwards, we're making progress," said Otero County Commissioner Jake Klein, in whose district North La Junta sits. The progress has included designing a better early warning system to tell local officials if another flood is brewing. Existing river - height gauges have been improved and more have been added. Some gauges have been added to tell authorities if the river has left its banks. Klein said a warning siren may be installed in North La Junta because residents there can't hear the sirens in La Junta, which sits across the river to the south. The region also may install a computerized system that alerts residents if a flood is coming, according to La Junta City Manager Rick Klein. If the river gauges detect a flood building, the system would work from a computerized database of land ownership records to call each house projected to be at risk. To prevent more flooding in La Junta itself, the Federal Emergency Management Administration has granted the city money for two high- capacity pumps, La Junta's Klein said. The pumps will carry away water that collects along U.S. 50 on the city's northeast edge, which also has 2 of 5 515/00 4:25 PM