For many months, in fact over two years, Boulder had been suffering from, if not drought, at least insufficient
rain. Everyone hoped for rain. Then on Monday, September 9th, it began to rain, not a gentle rain but a genuine monsoon rain. This was not the formerly common gentle afternoon rain of Boulder summers, but a torrential rain. Tuesday all day and night the rain continued. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it continued
and residents of much of northern Colorado were horrified.
The results of this monsoon were catastrophic, especially in areas of Boulder that sat in a flood plain.
And Boulder was not alone. Whole mountain towns were obliterated. Rushing rivers changed course, destroying over two hundred miles of highways. Houses were uprooted and people scrambled to
safety. The town Lyons was totally cut off from the outside. Mountain towns such as Jamestown
were a thing of the past. The Red Cross opened a shelter in the YMCA to accommodate evacuees,
and some churches also provided shelter for those who had lost their homes.
Boulder's most costly retirement residence, Frasier, had to evacuate all assisted living and total care
residents to other facilities, not only in Boulder but in Denver and environs. Some residents in independent living there had to evacuate apartments flooded with mud and grease. There is at this time no known plan to rebuild these destroyed facilities.
In the nearby Bramford, where I live, we were high and dry and feel very fortunate. We were totally
spared, just a block from the trashed Frasier, where the flooded garage also destroyed cars in the
mudslide.
It will be many years before Boulder and surrounding towns can be restored to normal and also
until Colorado residents can breathe more easily in this region so subject to flooding and also
to forest fires. It is in large part due to the warnings of internationally known geologist Gilbert
White that Boulder did what planning it did to avert even more serious consequences of this
disastrous flood.
