Colorado Re-Emerging From $2.9B Flood Disaster A Year Later

Sept. 07--ESTES PARK -- There is probably no better spot than Mountain Munchies Tiki Bar to plop down on a stool, order up a cocktail and watch the Big Thompson River roll by.

The run-up to a holiday weekend typically finds the Estes Park eatery's riverside patio jammed with revelers.

But on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend this year, Mountain Munchies owner Paul Whyard surveyed his tabletops as the Big Thompson -- gleaming in the late-summer sunlight -- flowed past.

Not a soul in sight. No one outside the bar, or in.

"I'm still dealing with what happened a year ago," Whyard sighed.

A year ago. A mad stretch of mid-September during which the heavens opened up and, in five interminable days, dropped nearly a year's worth of precipitation on parts of the Front Range.

Rivers crested their banks, gushing torrents ate away road- beds, and water poured, spilled and seeped into thousands of Colorado homes. Nine people died in the days immediately surrounding the flood, more than 1,000 people were evacuated by helicopter, more than 1,800 homes were destroyed and nearly 500 miles of roads were closed.

All told, damage from last September's floods reached a staggering $2.9 billion.

"This is the largest disaster that Colorado has ever endured," said Dan Alexander, federal disaster recovery coordinator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "This disaster has changed communities and the landscape. And this is going to take us years to recover from."

That recovery process is in full swing a year after the deluge, and it's a story filled with both invigorating successes and daunting challenges.

More than $1.4 billion has been earmarked for various reconstruction projects and rebuilding initiatives, be it in the form of grants, direct aid or insurance payouts dispensed by an alphabet soup of federal, state and local agencies.

Major flood-damaged roads were reopened by a Gov. John Hickenlooper-imposed deadline of Dec. 1, 2013, and hard-hit communities such as Lyons and James-town are in visibly better shape than just six months ago.

But the long-term effects of the disaster are inescapable, whether it's the Lyons family still living in FEMA housing at a Boulder mobile home park, the Longmont cabinetmaker still resurrecting a formerly sodden showroom or the business owner putting back together his historic bed-and-breakfast in Glen Haven.

"We're focused on building back stronger, better," said Molly Urbina, chief recovery officer for Colorado. "But this is not a sprint -- it's a marathon. And we're just starting the marathon."

FEMA housing 21 families

For Kit Sutorius, his wife, Lisa, and their two young children, the marathon began Sept. 12, 2013, when their double-wide trailer in Lyons got drenched by an out-of-control St. Vrain River.

"It never even crossed my mind that the river would come up that high," said Kit Sutorius, a landscaper and lifelong Lyons resident. "It was like thunder -- cars coming down, rocks tumbling down everywhere. Our brand new front yard was gone."

More important, his $75,000 mobile home was totaled, and like many in Colorado, the Sutorius family didn't have flood insurance.

Sutorius managed to get $27,000 of direct aid from FEMA and went with his family to live with his mother in Longmont. By Thanksgiving, they were desperate for a place of their own again.

They moved to north Boulder, where FEMA provided them with a trailer to live in.

It's not pretty, but it bears the hallmarks of a family making the place as much their own as possible -- a hodgepodge of donated furniture, a flatscreen TV bought for them by family and friends, and their children's paintings on the wall.

"I don't know where we would be right now if FEMA hadn't helped us," Kit Sutorius said.

Even so, the family doesn't want to be on the receiving end of emergency aid for much longer. They plan to move into a rental house in Longmont by the middle of next month.

"We're getting there," Lisa Sutorius said. "We're getting back on our feet."

The Sutorius family is one of 21 families still living in FEMA units a year after the floods ravaged the Front Range. At the post-flood peak, there were 47 families living in 54 units.

In total, Colorado flood victims have received nearly $62 million of individual aid from FEMA -- disbursed to more than 16,000 individuals and families -- to help with emergency home repairs, rental assistance and medical and legal expenses.

"We'd be done otherwise"

Another $66 million of flood insurance payouts have been made to policyholders through the National Flood Insurance Program.

Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association executive director Carole Walker said the fact that little more than 2,000 claims were paid when more than 16,000 homes were damaged highlights a vexing reality.

"Many people probably said, 'I'm not in a high flood risk area,' and didn't have it," she said. "Colorado has not had this type of widespread, catastrophic loss from flooding."

Just 24,000 individuals and businesses in Colorado have federal flood coverage, according to FEMA. Sadly, Walker said, the September floods served as a "tragic wake-up call" for many who once thought themselves immune to the damages of flooding.

That was true for Isaiah Rozek, whose lack of flood insurance meant that the half million dollars damage he sustained last fall to his Longmont custom cabinet business, Concept32, would have to be covered by other means.

Rozek didn't qualify for direct FEMA aid, forcing him to turn to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a low-interest loan. The $290,000 infusion from the SBA was critical, he said.

"We'd be done otherwise," he said.

Rozek has managed to reopen his showroom after a foot of water from the swollen St. Vrain closed it for six months. It is now 90 percent rebuilt, he said, and clients once again can browse his products.

The loan to Concept32 is one of 2,519 such loans made to Colorado flood victims, representing nearly $110 million of SBA lending since the tragedy occurred.

"Often we're the only option to cover damages that are uninsured," said Matt Varilek, the Region VIII administrator for the SBA. "When it comes to disasters, we're the long-term recovery function."

Funding takes time

Long term has become a familiar time peg for those recovering from natural disasters, and that holds true for one of the biggest sources of post-flood funding in Colorado -- $320 million in Community Development Block Grants administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

PHOTOS: 2013 floods, then and now

Eighty percent of the money, awarded by the federal government in three installments, is targeted at the counties most severely affected by the flooding -- Boulder, Weld and Larimer. The grants will be used to address housing, public infrastructure and economic development needs stemming from last September's destruction.

But the money may take time arriving. So far, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, which is responsible for allocating the CDBG funds statewide, has obligated only a few million dollars from the initial $62.8 million installment announced late last year.

It submitted an action plan to HUD for the second installment of $199 million -- the largest chunk of proceeds -- last week.

Reeves Brown, executive director of DOLA, said anything involving large-scale construction requires a "longer lead time."

But he said communities need not worry the money won't come their way.

"There's no question that all of it will be expended," he said.

In the meantime, some communities are moving forward on their own to raise funds to make repairs and put in place improved flood control measures.

In June, Longmont voters approved a $20.5 million bond issue -- to be repaid from the city's stormwater utility revenues -- to help make flood control improvements to the St. Vrain River.

Voters in Boulder County, the hardest-hit of the 15 Colorado counties included in the federal government's emergency disaster declaration last year, will be deciding this November whether to pass a 0.185 percent sales tax to raise $49.6 million over five years.

The county is anticipating a bill of $217 million to pay for infrastructure repairs and creek and waterway refurbishment. At a FEMA reimbursement rate of 75 percent, Boulder County will face a $56 million funding gap for recovery efforts, Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones said.

"We thought $50 million was the sweet spot to allow us to proceed with flood recovery in a timely fashion," she said. "This will allow us to be able to respond to any additional disasters."

Stephanie Walton, manager of the Long-Term Flood Recovery Group, said she appreciates the money being raised but sees a need for on-the-ground help for victims.

Her group, formed in December and based in Boulder, still takes in five to seven new cases a week of people needing rental assistance, mortgage help or emotional support. So far, the group has donated 119,000 volunteer hours toward flood recovery efforts, closing 205 cases out of 867 that have been opened.

"The need is still out there, and it would be great to raise more funds and recruit more volunteers," Walton said.

Sales taxes up in Estes

Back in Estes Park, Travis Zimmerman needs more shopper traffic for his skater shop, Lithium. And that means as quick a fix as possible for the highways leading to the tourist mecca at the foot of Rocky Mountain National Park.

U.S. 36 is undergoing permanent repairs into the fall while similar fixes for U.S. 34 are still ahead.

"Just the damage on the roads keeps people from coming up," Zimmerman said. "A lot of people thought we were completely washed away."

He remarked on how quiet the town felt on the eve of Labor Day weekend, with West Elkhorn Avenue lacking the bustle he's used to. Lithium has curtailed its hours and cut the number of employees from five last summer to three this year. Sales are down 25 percent from last year.

"It's Friday -- this store should be full," said Zimmerman, noting the carpet that never got replaced after getting drenched in the store. "It's dead."

Despite the woes of businesses like Lithium and Mountain Munchies, sales tax revenues in Estes Park actually are up 6 percent year-to-date through June over the same period in 2013.

Jon Nicholas, president and CEO of the Estes Park Economic Development Corporation, credits the community's fortitude for the town's impressive retail performance. But he acknowledged that the good news may not be evenly spread throughout town.

"What we've found is that some of the large businesses have weathered the storm but some of the smaller businesses are finding it more difficult," Nicholas said.

Additional help is on the way to Estes Park, with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Association granting the town $126,683 in June to develop a post-flood marketing strategy and an additional $300,000 last month to help Estes Park diversify its job base.

"We're much further along and in much better shape than I'd ever guessed," Nicholas said.

But Martin Shields, director of the Regional Economics Institute at Colorado State University, said the true test of Estes Park's recovery -- and the recovery of all the cities and towns inundated by last September's floods -- will come with time.

And with the willingness people show to come together to build a better place, post-flood.

"In the long term, what is the resiliency of the community?" Shields asked.

John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, [email protected] or twitter.com/abuvthefold

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