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,,' .^ Water, water everywhere... Page 2 of3 This week, they have spread wider than the Mississippi in spots. e In the fanning hamlet of Weldon a 80 miles northeast of Denver, National Guard helicopters plucked 40 stranded citizens from homes and businesses lying under up to 5 feet of water. "Nobody was in any great danger," National Guard Major General William Westerdahl said. "People were just patiently waiting until someone could get them off their rooftops.' e Over the past two days, up to 15 inches of rain pummeled the Pawnee National Grasslands. Hundreds of square miles drained into bathtub-narrow Pawnee Creek. The water then was trapped behind a trestle of the Union Pacific Railroad. Much like conditions at Spring Creek 36 hours earlier, flood waters rose steadily behind the earthen berm and finally surged over the top. A 7-mile wide flood spread through Sterling and Atwood. By 7 p.m., Sterling officials began evacuating patients from the local hospital's emergency room to a nearby school. After his helicopter tour, Romer, a plains native, fanner and equipment dealer, worried openly about these normally dry, windblown towns and their precious crops. Julesburg, a fanning center along the South Platte near the Nebraska border, is the largest community in the flood's northeast path along the South Platte. The latest clouds may not bring anything close to the record 8 to 12 inches that poured on central Fort Collins in just 6 hours late Monday. But they don't have to in order to wreak more havoc. Already saturated soil and weakened bridges and roads could crumble wherever garden-variety gullywashers erupt. "It's going to be around for a couple more days at least," said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Koopmeiners. "We're still going to have a monsoon flow well into the weekend and early next week." Earlier Wednesday, Romer returned to Fort Collins to declare the core city and the Colorado State University campus a disaster area. His office has applied for federal emergency aid while tapping $5 million in emergency state aid. But that won't cover even 10% of the damage tallied so far. Romer said the state has a $25 million flood insurance cap. He said he prefers to give most of that to CSU -- and dip into a separate emergency fund for flood damage elsewhere. e Offers of relief were pouring into the stricken communities almost as fast as the flood waters, including $100,000 from the Gay and Lesbian Outgiving Fund to Fort Collins. The fund is a charity ann of Denver publishing-software entrepreneur Tim Gill Thursday, July 31,1997 8:32 AM