Second Body Found In Poudre Canyon After Devastating Flood & Mudslide
LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - The Larimer County Sheriff's Office confirms search crews have found a second body amidst the debris from a flash flood and mudslide last week along the Cache la Poudre River. Officials say the body is that of a male.
On Sunday, work continued at the debris field near Highway 14 and Black Hollow Road. Crews had been looking for three missing people in Poudre Canyon since the flood on Tuesday. Sheriff's officials describe the three missing people as two men and a woman.
Crews already found the body of a woman, who has not yet been identified. She was found near Arrowhead Lodge on Wednesday.
Lower water levels allowed crews to comb over areas they couldn't get to before Sunday.
"It's so devastating and surreal on so many levels," said Brita LaTona. "This is the first time we are seeing it."
Brita and Alison LaTona drove up from Fort Collins to see what was left of the cabin their grandfather built. Brita says, "It looks completely different. Unrecognizable." Alison adds, "The whole layout of the living room is intact. Nothing was moved."
For them this trip was to help process their emotions. None of their family was in the cabin at the time, but they lost a family treasure and some neighbors who have yet to be found.
While the LaTonas tried to wrap their head around the destruction at Black Hollow Road, after a day of searching the body of a man was found east of Rustic near the river behind the Indian Meadows Lodge.
Search and rescue efforts for the remaining three missing people include a wide range of crews and tactics, including dive teams and U.S. Forest Service aircraft.
"We're seeing if the dogs give us some indications of piles to search with that equipment," Sgt. Kevin Johnston with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Emergency Services Unit told CBS4's Conor McCue on Saturday.
Several neighbors said they believe Dick Brown and his family are the three missing and that possibly one of them is the dead woman crews have recovered.
Brita and Alison say they don't know, but the Browns did have a home near the river on Black Hollow Road which is nowhere to be found. Their grandma knows the family well.
"She had just spoken with them less than a couple weeks before this happened so it's definitely devastating," Brita said.
The women hope they can help rebuild what they call a special community, but they know that even if they do, some things are gone forever.
"It's never going to look the same," said Alison .