Thunderstorms cause massive flooding in Aurora: "It looks like a big lake"
If you stood at the corner of Lansing Street and Center Avenue in Aurora you would think you were looking at a great body of water.
"It looks like a big lake," said Allen Krehbiel, an Aurora resident.
In fact, it was Expo Park, which is located along the Highline Canal in Aurora. It's somewhere Allen usually goes to play disc golf and now it is underwater.
"It's always odd to see my disc golf basket sticking out of the water here," he said.
Instead of disc golf, on Friday, he flew his drone over the park to survey the damage. From that vantage point you can see just how extensive the flood is.
"The water is going all the way and then it's going over alameda on the other sides," he said.
Friday morning, that water spilled over into the intersection of Havana Street and Alameda Avenue, causing Aurora police to shut down lanes most of the day.
It's something neighbors in the Expo Park neighborhood say is an unusual sight.
"It happens so rarely because we're in such a drought," Norma Schafer said.
She has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years and she can only remember one other time her neighborhood looked like this. During the 100-year flood of 2013.
She says back then there was much more water and her basement flooded. That's why this storm had her nervous.
"I'm grateful at first, but when it continues on the second day, I start to think this could be the time," Norma said.
Luckily, this time her home was spared and instead of a morning walk around the park, she got a walk around the water. Which she will gladly accept given the alternative.
So will Krehbiel, who has to put off a round of disc golf for at least one more day. He says he would rather see this park flood than anywhere else in the city.
"I'm glad that it's designed well, yeah, it's working well," he said.
