Many left homeless in Colorado

While the rain my have let up in Colorado, many residents, especially in the region of Lyons, are finding that they have lost their homes to the flood waters. The mud and rushing water was so active, that it literally picked up houses and cars and whisked them away. In the town of Lyons, the damage is extensive, and power poles lay in the streets.

In a report to CNN, Kelly Hunt said: “Today is our first day up here since we’ve been evacuated, and I feel like it’s worse than I thought it would be. We lost absolutely everything we own.” Abe Vasquez is another resident who, when visiting his mother’s home, found nothing but two feet of pooled raw sewage, and his mother’s walker. “It’s gone,” he said. “It’s hard.”

Some people were fortunate enough to have only some damage to their homes, and it is estimated that about 18,000 homes in total have had some sort of damage so far. There are also many people still missing, and Boulder County said 183 have not been accounted for.

“I think there is still going to be a lot of shock and disbelief,” said Matthew Applebaum, the mayor of Boulder. “The amount of destruction, the damage to people’s houses, the damage to neighorhoods, the damage to roads, the damage to our much beloved open space — it’s pretty significant and, as I said, it’s extraordinarily widespread.”