Colorado evacuees return to find more heartbreak

Associated Press

HYGIENE, Colo.

Weary Colorado evacuees have begun returning home after days of rain and flooding, but Monday’s clearing skies and receding waters revealed only more heartbreak: toppled houses, upended vehicles and a stinking layer of muck covering everything.

Rescuers grounded by week- end rains took advantage of the break in the weather to resume searches for people still stranded, with 21 heli-copters fanning out over the mountainsides and the plains to drop supplies and airlift those who need help.

The number of dead and missing people was difficult to pinpoint. State emergency officials reported the death toll at eight Monday, but officials there were investigating the circumstances of two of the fatalities.

In a Colorado Springs creek Monday, authorities recovered the body of a man but can’t say yet if the death is related to recent flooding. In Idaho Springs, an 83-year-old man died Monday when the ground he was standing on gave way and he was swept away by Clear Creek, according to The Denver Post.

Two of the eight fatalities are women missing and presumed dead.

The number of missing people was dropping as the state’s count fell Monday from just over 1,200 to about half that. State officials hoped the overall number would continue to drop with rescuers reaching more people and phone service being restored.

“You’ve got to remember, a lot of these folks lost cellphones, landlines, the Internet four to five days ago,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I am very hopeful that the vast majority of these people are safe and sound.”

Residents of Hygiene returned to their community to find mud blanketing roads, garages, even the tops of fence posts. The raging St. Vrain River they fled three days earlier had left trucks in ditches and carried items as far as 2 miles downstream.

Residents set to sweeping, shoveling and rinsing, but the task of rebuilding seemed overwhelming to some.

“What now? We don’t even know where to start,” said Genevieve Marquez.

Helicopters had evacuated more than 100 stranded residents in Larimer County by midafternoon Monday, said Chuck Russell, a spokesman for the federal incident command. Russell said he expected that helicopter crews would evacuate a total of up to 400 by the end of the day and perhaps twice that number today.