Flood watches continue in Colorado as President Obama declares major disaster

The U.S. National Weather Service warned Monday there is “still some potential” for flash flooding in some areas of Colorado, while President Barack Obama has issued a major disaster declaration for Boulder County and several National Guardsmen who were sent in to rescue civilians north of Boulder have themselves become stranded.

“The President’s declaration makes federal assistance available to individuals for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners in their recovery,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stated in a press release Sunday.

Last week, Aon Benfield reported the City of Boulder, about 40 km northwest of Denver, registered its wettest ever 24-hour period, after 231 mm of rain fell between 6:00 pm Sept. 11 and 6:00 p.m. Sept. 12. 

At the time, Aon Benfield reported it expected the economic impact of the flooding “should breach the hundreds of millions” of U.S. dollars.

Then on Friday, the Colorado National Guard reported that nearly 100 soldiers and airmen had been mobilized to help local authorities in search and rescue operations, including the evacuation of the Town of Lyons, about 60 kilometres northwest of Denver.

As of Saturday night, more than 450 Guardsmen and active-duty Army soldiers had rescued more than 1,750 people displaced by flooding, the U.S. military announced. Soldiers and airmen were using a combination of UH-60 Black Hawk and LUH-72 Lakota helicopters, as well as Light Medium Tactical Vehicle trucks.

On Sunday, the Colorado National Guard reported 51 people — including military, first responders and civilians — were stopped in Lyons by rising waters.

“Flood waters rose so high that even the half-dozen Light Medium Tactical Vehicles deployed with the group — the go-to high-mobility trucks that have become the staple of the military’s ground search-and-rescue efforts — couldn’t ford them,” the Colorado National Guard stated in a press release.

Pilots from Fort Carson — about 100 kilometres south of Denver — were tasked to rescue 51 people stranded in Lyons. But those pilots were only able to evacuate 10 civilians and their pets, “along with a number of first responders and Guardsmen, before weather took another bad turn and aviation operations were suspended again,” the Colorado National Guard stated in a release early Monday morning.

Meanwhile, soldiers from Fort Carson used Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters to rescue civilians in the Denver area, according to the Facebook fan page of the U.S. Army’s 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 4th Aviation Regiment.

“Lingering moisture combined with afternoon heating will allow for the development of scattered thunderstorms in the mountains and foothills this afternoon,” the National Weather Service stated shortly before 6:00 a.m. Mountain Time Monday. “A few of the storms could still produced up to an inch (25 mm) of rain in less than 30 minutes. With the ground remaining very saturated a few locations may see flash flooding.”

FEMA stated earlier that federal disaster aid has been ordered for the State of Colorado “to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides beginning September 11, 2013 and continuing.”

Image: “U.S. soldiers and airmen from the Colorado National Guard, along with members of civilian emergency response agencies, combine efforts to fill sandbags at the Arvada Fire Protection District Training Center in Arvada, Colo., to help mitigate flooding in the area, Sept. 15, 2013.” (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Nicole Manzanares/Released)