My heart is broken for all those affected by the floods…
I fully realize that, with only 8 deaths and only 50 still missing, it could have been so much worse. Still… all the images just break my heart. And yet, there is help and aid coming in from all over the country. That’s the silver lining. I just hope there’s enough time to get the roads that CDOT (Colorado Dept. of Trans.) has designated as major roads to repair done. There’s already snow on the higher peaks…
Okay, I realize that “out-of-towners” aren’t going to get a lot of Colorado’s town’s names right, but if you’re going to be working here for an extended period of time, could you please try to get the names right? For example – Estes Park. I have lost track of how many times I’ve heard it called Estees Park. It’s Estes Park. It’s a Spanish word. (I apologize, but my Spanish is from High School and I can’t remember if it means This Park or The Park. And it’s Arvada. Pronounced ahr-vad-uh, not ahr-vad-a. And it spelled Lyons, but it’s pronounced Lions, not Lie-ons. And Lamar is Lamar, not La Mar, or Lemar or Lamer (only natives get to use that particular pronunciation.) La Junta is pronounced La Hunta, not La Junta. Again, it’s a Spanish word.
Oh, and Niwot is pronounced Ni-wat, not Ni-wit. I’d love to see how they pronounce Neenosha, Neegrande, Neesopah, or Neeskah. (These are Irrigation holding lakes and they all have Indian names.)
Well, Boulder and the surrounding counties have been flooded – seriously flooded – for 4 or 5 days now. Yes, I’ve lost track. Down here in the dust bowl, all we got, for 4 days of rain, was maybe an inch and a half. Still, we’ll take it. The statistics are incredible. 7,494 homes damaged, 1,502 homes destroyed, 11,700 people evacuated, 1,253 people unaccounted for, and 26 shelters open, according to CO Emergency. And these numbers are expected to change. 30 bridges are gone completely, 20 hiways are very damaged and hundreds of miles of roads are still underwater. Three towns were completely cut off – Milliken, Estes Park and Lyons. The number of people rescued from those towns is well over 10,000. Let me just say right here – Thank You, God, for the National Guard, and for all the First Responders that rushed in like the Calvary to help rescue and evacuate all the people that were affected. But the pictures that have come out of this are just incredible
This is downtown Lyons as of 3:30 pm today (09/15/2013). There were two ways to get into town. Today there was only 1 way out – helicopters. But at least they are all out, all 1200 of them.
Then some one had to say “Why does God hate Colorado?” God doesn’t hate Colorado. This flood was the result of us. Of Humans. Building houses and clearing the land in places that are too close to rivers that can becomes raging, angry creatures. This is also the result, in part, of all the fires we had earlier this year. Nothing to hold the water and/or ground in place. And finally, it’s called a 100 year flood for a reason. Everything came together all at once and Colorado got it’s own version of a perfect storm. Tomorrow’s the last day of forecasted rain, then things start warming up and drying out. Then it will start getting really ugly as the waters recede.
And yes, we had a few minutes today wondering about my brother, but they finally called my Mom and they are all safe and fine. Aunts and Uncles and cousins are safe and friends have all been heard from and are safe and well. I am indeed blessed. My prayers go out to everybody all along the Front Range affected in any way, by this storm.
This is what’s left of Hiway 7 south of Lyons…
I was informed, the other day, that I wasn’t old enough to know what pain is. First, thank you for the back-handed compliment, second, What? Okay, so I know the guy was trying to make a joke, but it wasn’t very funny. In fact it was a bit crappy. Because the joke didn’t go over well (can we say lead balloon?), he then proceeded to tell me that I am not as sick or in as much pain as he is. Okay, in regard to the pain, he may have a leg up, pardon the pun, on me because he’s dealing with a broken hip repair gone wrong, but that still doesn’t give him the right, or authority, to tell me I don’t know pain. I don’t know his pain, he doesn’t know mine, but I do know when I’m in pain.
Pain is subjective, I admit that. What is a level 10 pain to me might only be a 7 or 8 to somebody else. the Doctors and Nurses can put out all the charts and all the scales they want and they will never convince me that the pain I feel in my knees and hips and back is only a level 6 pain when to me, it’s a 9 or, God forbid, 10 level of pain. If I hurt bad enough to cry, or not move, it’s a level 10.
You know, there really is no way for someone else to “walk a mile in your shoes”. My life can sometimes feel out of control and insane and wrong and difficult, but even if my best friend tried to walked in my shoes, her experiences up to that particular point in her life, would be entirely different than mine were that lead up to the particular point in time so that her interpretation would be entirely different from mine…
Okay, I’m getting a bit off track. My point is, as with pain, Life itself, is subjective. We can all agree on certain experiences, but never on all of them. And no two people react to things the same way. No matter how close they are…
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