Officials: 5 Dead in CO Floods, Evacuations Continue

By Mark Leberfinger, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

September 14,2013; 5:09PM,EDT

 

 

As many as five people are reported dead after a historic midweek flood in Colorado.
At least 350 people were unaccounted for late Saturday, authorities said.
At least one person was killed in a collapsed home due to the flooding. Another life was taken on the 200 block of Linden in Boulder, reported Boulder Emergency Management. A third person was found dead in Fountain Creek, Colorado Springs police said. The fourth person died in Boulder, authorities told The Associated Press.
A fifth person is presumed dead after her house was destroyed by flood waters in Larimer County, the sheriff's office there said.
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Officials said the focus continues on search and rescue operations, which are challenging because numerous mountain roads are flooded, damaged and impassable.
About 1,400 people were being evacuated from the Big Elk Meadows and Pinewood Springs area, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office said. There are an unknown number of people in Rist Canyon, Poudre Canyon and Big Thompson Canyon also needing to be evacuated.
Colorado National Guardsmen dropped about 7,000 ready-to-eat meals and other supplies to stranded residents, the sheriff's office said.
There is no immediate threat to drinking water in Boulder, Erie, Lafayette or Longmont, officials said. Boulder city officials reported that part of the city's main wastewater pipeline was destroyed by flood waters; it carried about 90 percent of Boulder's untreated wastewater.
President Barack Obama approved federal aid for Colorado on Friday as a result of the flooding in Boulder, El Paso and Larimer counties.
The University of Colorado at Boulder is closed through Sunday although university officials were preparing to reopen on Monday, the university said on its website.

Homes in residential neighborhood in Longmont, Colo., are submerged as flooding continues to devastate the Front Range and thousands are forced to evacuate with an unconfirmed number of structures destroyed, Friday, Sept. 13, 2013. The days-long rush of water from higher ground has killed four people and turned towns on Colorado's expansive eastern plains into muddy swamps. (AP Photo/John Wark)