Boulder County received its entire year’s share of water over a week period early in September. The damage the flash flooding caused was devastating for too many people. The typically small creek that runs along Four Mile Canyon rose up and destroyed houses, bridges, cars, and added to Boulder Creek, which flooded much of the City of Boulder. Last week Boulder Canyon Road was finally opened and I went up with a friend to see some of the damage to her house and the road.
This bridge was hardly damaged compared to many of the bridges along this creek, including most of my friend’s neighbors’. But massive amounts of water and debris pounded this bridge during the storms. It used to be straight.
We drove up the road to check out more of the damage and see where the road had been completely washed away and saw this scene. I talked with the neighbor who was using the stones in the creek to rebuild his driveway. The guy that owns these classic cars, his yard used to run pretty much to the sandbar you see on the right. That sandbar used to be where the creek ran. The flood deposited so much debris it redirected the creek through the guy’s yard and took the land right out from under the cars.
This classic truck sits wrecked by the flood just a quarter mile down the road from the other vehicles. The flood carried it all that way inflicting a massive amount of damage. As you can see.
There’s a lot worse damage in places such as Jamestown. This was just barely scratching the surface. It’s amazing how fast and with how much force the water came racing down these canyons. Hopefully, it will be another 100 years before we get another like it.
