Evacuations, road closures caused by first floods after Spring Creek fire

As monsoon rains whip through Colorado, southern communities are bracing for new catastrophes in and around the burn scar left by the state’s third largest wildfire.

Huerfano County Emergency Manager Larry Sanders said rains this week flooded Middle Creek west of La Veta, washing away an old barn. That was the only structure reported destroyed, while reports of lost cattle continued to pile up after the Spring Creek fire scorched more than 108,000 acres.

On Wednesday, Huerfano officials and those in the next county over were taking stock of damage from the previous night’s storm. Residents of Paradise Acres near La Veta were urged to evacuate by heading south to U.S. 160, not north to Colorado 69, which would later be closed in both directions because of high water.

The closure, the Colorado Department of Transportation said, was 3 miles from Gardner, where social media photos showed Pass Creek encroaching on properties.

As chaotic as conditions have been in the weeks after the fire, Sanders feared bigger storms that would cover a wider area of the burn scar, possibly causing the region’s waterways to converge.

“I think, unfortunately, it’s a reality,” he said. “The potential for much larger flooding and damage is almost certain. It’s very real.”

Across the county line Monday, mudslides closed a portion of U.S. 160 for about an hour. Other residential roads were rendered inaccessible as well, said Chris Rodriguez, Costilla County’s emergency manager.

“I’m sure we haven’t seen the worst of it,” he said. “The worst is yet to come.”

Officials are warning residents living in or below the burn scar to be on high alert when flash flood watches are issued, and be prepared to flee before water rushes down barren mountainsides. Drivers should not attempt to cross flooded roads, which should be expected especially near streams. In the first two years after a wildfire, flows can be 150 times greater than preblaze levels, reports Coalitions and Collaboratives, Inc., the resource Huerfano County lists on its recovery site, fire.huerfano.us.

“We’re in it for the long haul. We understand this is a multiyear problem we’re gonna have to deal with,” Sanders said, a day after floods locally in Manitou Springs reminded residents they had not escaped the impacts of 2012’s Waldo Canyon fire.

So far, floods have dissipated before reaching La Veta, Sanders said. South of town on the way to Cuchara, CDOT crews last week were seen mitigating parts of Colorado 12 that had been washed out, forcing some vehicles to turn around before the village.

While mitigation continues in subdivisions that survived the fire along U.S. 160, concerns linger over the region’s major drinking water source, the Cucharas River.

“Yesterday we were down there, and you could smell the ash in the water,” Rodriguez said.

Heavy intake from flooding could damage the area’s treatment facilities, Sanders added, with the one in La Veta most at risk. As far as other areas most vulnerable, he and Rodriguez were still working to identify them.

“It’s a staff of one here in the OEM office,” Sanders said. “I could use closer to 30 people.”

Meanwhile, some residents are coming to terms with their nightmare lasting longer than the fire.

“One gentleman told me, ‘When will this stop?’” Rodriguez said. “It’s not gonna be for a while unfortunately. It’s just this cycle Mother Nature puts us through to show us she’s still boss.”