Laserfiche WebLink
<br />.' <br /> <br />Water, water everywhere... <br /> <br />Page I of3 <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />Rocky Mountain ~ . Fort Collins Flood Archives' Flood Bulletin Board <br /> <br />Water, water everywhere... <br /> <br />, <br />Fort Collins picks up but eastern plains towns take new brunt of the flooding's <br />force <br /> <br />By Joseph B. Verrengia <br />Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer <br /> <br />, <br />FORT COLLINS - Survivors of the Spring Creek flood shifted from rescuing to <br />rebuilding Wednesday, but a new phalanx of menacing swnmer thunderstorms swept <br />across the eastern plains, swamping farming communities and ruining crops. <br /> <br />While Fort Collins dug out from the flood that killed five women Monday night, the <br />drama shifted 60 miles east. <br /> <br />Flash flood warnings blared in 13 counties, including metro Denver. More storms were <br />forecast throughout the night and into the weekend. <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />Several,towns in the brimming South Platte River basin were caught by surprise as <br />floodwaters fed by torrential rain seeped -- rather than surged -- toward them. Weldona, <br />Sterling, Atwood, Raymer, Stoneham and other towns were inundated. <br /> <br />Dozens of families were evacuated. Entire harvests of corn and sugar beets may be lost, <br />but no deaths and few injuries were reported. <br /> <br />Gov. Roy Romer flew over the tabletop region -- a day after a helicopter tour of ravaged <br />Fort Collins. Shortgrass rangeland and checkerboard fields with hardly a water source in <br />sight had suddenly become a foamy, brown lagoon. <br /> <br />"There's a lot of damage out here, more than I imagined," Romer said. "There's a lot of <br />ranches, a lot of homes that have some real damage. Heck, there's a river flowing through <br />Atwood." <br /> <br />No damage estimates were immediately available for the plains towns. The governor said <br />he would add the area to the federal disaster relief request he already has submitted for <br />Fort Collins, where damage is believed to exceed $50 million. <br /> <br />The plains flanking the South Platte River in northeast Colorado might not be as flat as a <br />billiards table, but they're among the emptiest places in Colorado and the last where <br />floods of this magnitude would be expected. <br /> <br />Rain had been expected, but its intensity was fearsome even in a region frequently <br />battered by hail, tornadoes and blizzards. <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />The avenues of destruction hardly were the usual suspects. Spring Creek, Pawnee Creek <br />and irrigation ditches normally are too small to find on a road map. <br /> <br />Thursday, July 31,1997 <br /> <br />8:32 AM <br />