Elbert County deals with severe floods in aftermath of storm
In Elbert County, large areas along Running Creek just north of the town of Elizabeth saw a lot of damage Thursday evening.
Commissioner for District 1 Chris Richardson confirmed the county had already declared a disaster last week.
"Last week after the rains of this previous weekend we were assessing damage and we realized it was about a million dollars, which is a lot more than our annual budget can absorb," said Richardson.
The declaration allows them to get state resources and to seek reimbursement from the state.
On Thursday night, Gov. Jared Polis also declared a state-level disaster in four Colorado counties last night, which included Elbert County.
Over the last couple of days, the county received eight additional inches of rain.
So far this year, measurements across Elbert County have ranged from 25 inches to over 37 inches of rain in some areas over the last four weeks, according to Richardson.
"Just in the last four weeks the ground is saturated when these rains come and it just pushed all the debris that has been built up over a decade down and that affects bridges, the water is overtop and at that point, we have failures like this," said Richardson.
This week's flooding is similar to what the county saw in 1965. In 1935, half the town of Elbert was lost in a major flood. During that time the town saw 24 inches of rain in six hours.
After that, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built about 60 flood control dams throughout the county which helped mitigate some flooding but much infrastructure was still lost in 1965.
Now, six residences are cut off from roads in the county.
Roads and bridge crews working "ceaselessly" for over a week now. Many have had to redo the work they've done after this week's damage. Some employees have even given up vacations, voluntarily to work on the roads.
"This is going to be expensive and it's going to take a long time," one person told CBS News Colorado photographer Rob McClure.
Some vehicles that were parked away from Running Creek, eroded underneath them and they fell into the water.
"It's never been like this before," said Luke Heirendt, a pastor with Creekside Community Church in Elbert County.
Cleaning efforts are underway despite the uncertainty of more rain in the area, and crews are also working on bringing back power to the church.
"The electric company has done a good job, they are trying to get power restored for us, but we don't have any gas or electric right now.... we are going to do online church only for a couple of weeks," said Heirendt.
Lines were cut when their driveway was washed away.
"The stream is usually up a foot or two, we usually have an 8 feet of clearance between the bridge and the creek level and it was going on top of the creek the other day and then now, now we have a 50-foot river here," said Heirendt.
32 miles of a 1200 mile road network are affected and eight roads are cut completely.
As of Friday there are still several road closures in Elbert County.
There is no estimate when those roads will open back up, but it is clear these roads will need work by the county and bridge department.
Congressmen Ken Buck is said to have offered federal support once certain triggers are met.
