boulderstrong

boulder and much of colorado have had a rough time these past days.  i'm not really sure if i'm ready to post about it yet.  i've seen terrible things, so much devastation and so many people in desperate situations.  but i will share some of what has happened here at our place which was saved by the relentless efforts of my extremely resourceful, prepared, strong, capable and courageous husband, wingman sebastian and friends. dan (in the cap) is our insurance agent and showed up immediately.  he should be in a commercial!  paul has fought like a bulldog for days to save our home.  my knight won the fight.

thursday, early afternoon.  the rains have been relentless.  by the end of the storms, boulder had 17.5 inches of rainfall in 5 days. this is more than we average in a whole year. at this point, we have no idea what is yet to come.  but paul has a plan.  he directs the manpower to build barricades diverting the constant and heavy stream coming from the hills above (we find out later that a ditch had collapsed and a canal was blocked), across and down the street, down our driveway and straight to the house.  he spends all day on his tractor digging ditches to hold the rising water.

the water is diverted across the driveway to the west side of the property into an irrigation ditch.

it then empties into our back yard and stream heading north.

through the outdoor kitchen,

back over to the east side of the property into an old irrigation ditch.

finally emptying into south boulder creek at the bottom of the property.

the creek was past capacity but flooded over the opposite bank into open space.  luckily, no one lives there.

these bright, green frogs have shown up everywhere.  i've never seen them before.  flood frogs.

busted!  racoon tracks in the silt heading over to the trash cans.  you naughty, naughty things!

paul's been through pairs and pairs of shoes. nothing is dry.

there was a lull on saturday as we regrouped, rebuilt and refortified for the impending second storm.  

there in the background is our faithful and strong excursion, brutus.  this car saved us once again. without brutus, we would never have made it through the flooded roads when we finally had to evacuate on thursday night.  part of a hillside gave way and the threat of a mudslide caused a forced evacuation in our valley and canyon.  what an extremely tough action to take.  i never thought i would be able to leave but something inside me clicked and i knew it was time.  from then on, i just wanted my family to be safe.  nothing, nothing else mattered.  thank you to our amazing friends for taking an exhausted, mudsoaked family and large wet dog under their roof.  thank you. thank you.

saturday afternoon waiting for the new storm on sunday.  bring it on!!

i'll close this post with thoughts on what i have learned through this challenging experience:

- the will to save what is yours is just about stronger than any other feeling
- be humble enough to know when it is time to give up that feeling because the will to save those you love IS the strongest feeling
- stuff is a burden
- 12 inches of moving water can fill a space (basement, ditch, crawl space, etc.) in a matter of minutes.
- the power of rushing water is incredible
- make an escape route, parking a car you can access to get you out of danger
- don't expect those in a crisis to inform you they are in crisis, they are busy.  if you are worried, call them.
- please don't be a disaster tourist.  if you are that interested, get out of your car and help!
- steer clear of alarmists.  just by being there, they make a bad situation much worse.
- boulderites are a strong and willful breed
- things could always be worse...


thank you to friends and family who have expressed love and concern for us.  it is so comforting to know you are there.