Denver Travel Group September Meeting

Knowing that not everyone uses their actual town name on the Helpline, I hope all of you are dry and out of harm's way. You've really gotten walloped...

Not all of Colorado got walloped. Worst was mostly north of Denver (Boulder, Longmont, Greeley). Bad on the flat lands and in the mountain river valleys (Lyons, Estes Park). Here in Lakewood we live on the side of Green Mountain. It rained pretty hard here, but the water all ran off to Lake Aurora. I don't think the south side of Denver saw as much rain (although Colorado Springs, to the south, did get too much).

We only had total of about 3 inches but significant for Sept.

After seeing the footage on the news for the last week or so, I was also concerned for all the folks in Colorado. It's good to hear that all of you haven't been affected too much by the floods. It looks like the damage is severe in some parts of the state.

It was only a fifty mile or so stretch of the foothills north of Denver and Boulder where the monsoon set up for a week and poured upwards of 18" of rain onto a lot of ground that had been burned over the previous year. Bad combination.

The northwest corner of Colorado is a mess and will take a while to recover. Luckily only 6 people died as compared to 143 in the Big Thompson flood 30 or so years ago. Over 8000 people are still evacuated and 100 or so unaccounted for. This map shows the closed roads http://cotrip.org/roadConditions.htm - essentially all the canyons from the flat lands into the mountains are destroyed. Many roads on the plains are damaged and some bridges too. Many people think of Colorado as all mountains but it is really flat on the eastern half. The mountains were not impacted at all, so ski season will be fine! My house is totally fine - I am more grateful for running water and electricity! Without a functioning sump pump, I would be among those tearing out carpeting and soggy drywall. This is a great chat group. Thanks,
Beth

I was pleased to see that Team Rubicon will be deploying teams to Colorado to help with disaster relief. They're a very dedicated organization that tries to help in as many ways as possible. I know they'll lighten the burden for as many people as they can in recovering from this disaster.

Hey, guys. Sorry I didn't make it, but things are a little hectic. We're leaving Monday for 3 weeks in Germany. Our guest, who will house sit for 3 weeks arrived Friday. Busy, busy, busy.

I missed also for nearly similar reasons. We are a day behind. Head to Amsterdam on Tuesday and home from Rome thirty days later. See you all at the Nov meeting.

Lee and Frank, Hope you and your families all have a wonderful time in Europe!