Thanks for the concern - I'm okay, family ok, most of my friends were ok (one lost a home). There are some incredible stories emerging in all the Colorado news. Here we are in what is called high desert, and we just don't get days and days of rain and much flooding. Even when we have blizzards (far more frequent than floods), we don't see the same types of damage and loss. Once it finally stopped raining, it took a couple of days for the waters to recede. What some people thought was a flooded street often turned out to be a street with a giant sinkhole, or a road that was buckling with nothing beneath it to support vehicles. All over the region, crews are going around making assessments of bridges and roadways. I have heard estimates of $100 million in roadway repairs. We have a major highway, US 36, that provides access to Estes Park and the eastern portal to the Rocky Mountain National Park. That highway is closed up to Estes Park. Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuously paved road in the US, traverses the RMNP to the western portal of Grand Lake. Trail Ridge Rd closes about now due to snow. It closed yesterday, for example. So, entire communities such as Coal Creek and Jamestown can find themselves isolated from the rest of Colorado.Toothdoc wrote:K2,
Need an update on Colo, are you and friends and family OK? It really looks bad on the news. Hope all is well!
danno
It will take a lot of time and resources to rebuild the roads. In the meantime, people who are isolated have to move back down the "hill" to areas that can be accessed. Some people are parking a vehicle on one side of the river or creek and using another on the other side where there is a bridge they can cross by foot to get back and forth to their homes. We are having to retrain our thinking that certain shortcuts and routes that we have "always used" are just not available, and to give enough time to get wherever given a new set of circumstances. In many senses, these are small things compared to those who have lost homes or have damaged property. Trails will also have to be rebuilt, and I bet there will be some prime volunteering opportunities. There are many bike trails that were destroyed, and I will help put those back together. The only way that much of the repairs can be done is if people volunteer - there just isn't enough money anywhere to fix it all.
Two stories that were of note to me:
One friend relayed the story of her friends who lived by one of the flooding creeks. A week ago Thursday, they saw that the water level was rising quickly. They spent the day moving much of their first floor items up to the second floor because they knew they would have a flooded first floor. Neighbors up the road invited them to dinner, and then suggested that they stay overnight since it had been a tiring day and the water was rising. The next morning, the husband went to get something from their house - and discovered that there was no house, no extra car, nothing. It was as if it had never been there. Good thing they stayed with neighbors the previous night!
A second story was played out as part of a news broadcast. It was very emotional and yet funny at the same time - and you could tell that the man who was relaying his portion of the story was starting to see the humor in it. A man and wife were out on the deck of their home that was close to the flooding creek - making the decision to evacuate. Their deck had a large cast iron flower tub on it. Suddenly the house started sliding into the creek/river, throwing the man and his wife off the deck. His wife was hit with the cast iron flower tub as they went over the edge into the waters and he heard her cry out. He said that within seconds, the strength of the water was so incredible that all his clothes were torn off of him. He was thrown about in the water - rapidly moving downstream. Meanwhile, his wife's cry was heard by a young guy on the bank of the creek/river. This young guy jumps into the waters and pulls the woman out. He gets her into his family's house and calls for paramedics to attend to her broken leg. She is despondent, thinking her husband has gone down the river.
Back to the husband, who is now quite naked,"I mean buck naked" he says. He is body slammed into a tree and crawls out onto one of its branches - yelling. A fireman in a boat hears him and flashes a light over to him - and sees a naked man in the tree. Fireman (crew) makes their way over to the tree to rescue the guy. They ask if there was anyone else with him. He says yes, my wife - but I think she's lost. He tells them she has blonde hair. The fire crew gets on the radio and relays "we have a naked man in a tree who has lost his wife, a blonde woman." The relay comes back "we have a blonde woman with a broken leg in the living room of a nearby house." And the husband knew then that she was ok. Of course, during the filming of the whole episode - the couple is holding fast to each other's hands. You could tell that once the shock is passed, that this is going to be quite a story for them.
So, in the scheme of things, I feel quite blessed.
I'm sure it won't be the last marathon I row, although I'm not planning on rowing another for a few weeks 
But you never know, just like my first half-marathon this one was a spur of the moment kind of thing, with me getting home from work, feeling strangely energetic and eying the erg for about half an hour while wondering to myself "How hard can it REALLY be?" and then just giving it a go 
Mike C 21,097 m
Richard T 45,961 m
Hopefully I'm recovered and can start contributing to the FTC again.
m 
