Flood Update (Saturday Oct 19)

This morning Nathan took Andrew and the other 12-13 year olds to dig in the mud in Berthoud. They went to help a family whose property had been buried under feet of mucky mud.

The owner boards horses . . . well, used to until the flood. His corral was buried under tree branches, weeds, and mud that were swept along. He was able to get all of his animals out successfully, but lost a pair of chickens to the neighbor's dog who was keeping them for him.

The boys worked on clearing out 2-3 feet of mud from this shed. (Nathan estimated it was 15 by 20 feet).

Before--see the waterline?

Outside . . . see all the debris in the mud?

Part of the pile of mud they removed from the shed

It would have taken the family a LONG time to get it done, but the boys and parents who accompanied them were able to clear it out in 3 hours. The owner has been using a front end loader to clean up his property, but because of the small doors to the shed, the only way to clean it out was by hand, with shovels & wheelbarrows. The owner offered them lunch, but they'd brought it with them, so they worked and then came home. He thanked them many times.

Our nephew was visiting our family this weekend, and since he's in that age group he got to go along as well. It was a good experience for them, I think they'll sleep really well tonight.

They've made mention about keeping the cleanup efforts going until the really cold weather is here . . . we had a little snow (only an inch or so) this week, so we'll see. Several people we know have spent their Saturday mornings each week involved in the cleanup efforts.

Nathan said the property was beautiful, even with all the mud. The basement of the house was flooded, with three feet of water, but the main damage was to the barn, corral, and shed closer to the river.


Update: Sunday evening
Today at church they read some numbers about service hours. They said that over 2400 people from our stake have given over 8000 hours of service. 33 unique projects have been undertaken, 18 of them in Berthoud (one of the hardest hit in our stake). Quite a thing.

Flood Update (Fri Sept 27)

Last night I received a call asking if I could help clean up houses in Berthoud, a community about 40 minutes southwest of where we live. I said yes and she promised she could find someone to watch Ed, offering to watch him herself.

I ended up making my own arrangements for Ed and drove two other sisters in my ward. We met at the chapel there .. . . such a pretty little town. (My friend Helen's sister lives in Berthoud).

There were about 10 ladies who gathered to help clean two homes. One of the families cancelled, so we all went to one house. The lady in charge, we'll call her "Sister H" is the Relief Society President in the Berthoud Ward. She seemed a little worn out . . . admitted that herself when she asked someone else to say the prayer. She gave a brief introduction to our efforts.

Berthoud lies along the Little Thompson River. There are areas in Berthoud that are unaffected, but those close to the river had a lot of damage. (6 feet of water in the first home Nathan was asked to clean out). Sister H said that FEMA came through but did not stay to offer help in the clean up process. Members of the Berthoud ward went to the lowest lying areas to ask what help was needed. Essentially they told each of these families that if they would choose a day, our stake would supply extra help.

We followed her in our cars so that she could stay longer--because she knew we would probably have varying levels of time availability. She said we also needed to follow her to get to the home, because putting it into a GPS would take us over bridges that were closed. I was sure she was right about that little fact, especially when we went past a "Road Closed" sign.

The family whose home we went to this morning was expecting 3-4 people. But remember, one household cancelled, so all of us showed up. We were more than a little overwhelming. In about two hours, we mopped the main living areas of the home and cleaned everything that touched the floors with a bleach solution. The carpet had been removed earlier we were cleaning tile and cement. They had already mopped before--our purpose was to disinfect with bleach. You would not believe how quickly the mop bucket would be brown & cloudy. It was nice to work together and in a short time we got a lot of work done. It would not have been possible without as many helpers. Laundry was folded, toys were wiped down, dishes washed, and hope renewed.

There were three children there . . . close to the ages of some of my own. I wonder what they've thought & felt the past couple of weeks. They still had their smiles.

I took time to talk to the family. The owner said that his house is normally 17 to 17.5 feet above the river. He said it rose 18 feet & crested 4 times. The crests came when reservoirs were failing. One of the crests was a 2 and 1/2 foot rise that came and went in under an hour. He's owned that property for 30 years . . . so he wasn't there for the 1976 flooding. As we were leaving he was talking about lots of equipment he owned which was now gone.. . . and said, "It's all just stuff."
"The important things, the ones on two legs," he said, gesturing to his grandson nearby, "Are still here and walking, and that's all that matters."

I would have liked to stay a little longer, but we had to get back to get Ed. It was a great experience to be invited into their home to help them for a little while.

There are projects the next 3 weekends helping families in this same area. Saturday morning at 9 am. 

Flood Update (Sun Sept 22)

This week we were asked to help with two projects: cleaning up the yard of a business and volunteering at the Loveland Flood Relief Disaster Center. We were unable to help with the business cleanup because of a prior commitment, but I am scheduled to go to the Disaster Center in a few days.

The stakes surrounding the hardest hit areas are assigned a neighboring stake to help, which I believe I already mentioned. Cheyenne is helping us . . . 75 men from my dad's stake were down yesterday helping in Berthoud . . . . Denver is helping Boulder--it's all very organized. 

Today we had no meetings or commitments and decided to go as a family to see if we could be helpful at the Loveland Flood Disaster Relief Center. It was delightful. We invited a bunch of friends to come and two of our children's friends were able to come with us, and one of the moms.

We worked from around 2 pm until 4:30 pm. Individuals and groups have donated items and the volunteers are working on sorting them to set up a "store" for flood victims who need help. I am not sure what the qualifications process is, but they are invited to take clothing, shoes, hygiene, baby care, and food.

It was impressive. We saw individuals representing FEMA, American Red Cross, Americorps, and individuals and families who wanted to help. I did not take any photos of the "store," but I will say that it is well organized. We did not see many there shopping, but there were a few. One man, who said he's volunteered every day last week said yesterday there were approximately 400 who came through, but he wasn't sure if that was individuals or families.

See those yellow vests? Left from those people is the "receiving dock" where families dropped off donations.

After the volunteer crowd died down a bit . . . the "store" is on the other side of the curtains

Labeling boxes to sort clothing donations

Transporting sorted clothing to another area for temporary storage until the "store" needs re-stocked

I teach Sunday School and today the lesson was on rescuing the Martin & Willie handcart companies. We had lots of talk about reaching out in service--to the handcart pioneers & flood victims. One lady, who'd been to the disaster center earlier in the week said, "Not all the people wearing 'Mormon Helping Hands' vests are members, so it gives you a great opportunity to talk about that if they aren't."
I tried that trick, I approached a man who'd been working near us and asked if he was Mormon. He said he was not, but did not seem bothered to wear it . . . . which is great. We welcome visitors.

During our regular church meetings today, we were told that the LDS church sent 3 semi's full of supplies to this disaster relief center. Our stake president worked as a liaison with the City of Loveland and the Church to find out what was needed. And then, it came.

Being close to those flood waters but not affected by them will give our family many opportunities to serve. It will bring us closer to our neighbors and help us remember what's truly important.
Today's service will be a happy memory for our family--there are many days ahead to serve & we are grateful to be a part of it.

Flood Update (Tuesday, Sept 17th)

Took this from the Gateway Baptist Church's Website so you could see the water . . . which has receded even more than this photo shows

 Nathan works with the young men at church and wanted to use the weeknight activity for flood recovery. He used a link from Just Serve to contact the pastor at Gateway Baptist Church, Loveland, CO
to see if they could come help.
(Just Serve has different daytime shifts available for serving there, but the young men & leaders needed an evening shift).

Click on the link above to see some of the photos of their church building and the flooding.
They had at least 2 feet of water inside. Also, their church website found HERE: has a flooding update. They seem to be making steady progress--over 125 people showed up to help on Monday, and more today.

Tonight the deacons from our ward, and the entire young men's group from a neighboring ward, went to help. Other volunteers had brought the muddy, upholstered chairs, outside for cleaning. They were clean and drying outside in the sun when Nathan called, so the pastor said that the boys could help carry them in. He estimated there were 35 or so from our church who formed a fire line and brought them in and then hauled them upstairs. He said the ruined carpet is out, the subfloor is showing, and they've made a lot of headway, as you will read about on their flood update.

I asked Andrew about it and he said, "Their chairs are heavier than ours and they don't fold up." I asked if he had fun, and he said yes.

Flood update (Sun Sept 15th)

This morning we had church at 9:00am. One of the speakers who'd been invited did not come, because it was raining this morning and she would have to cross the Big Thompson River and did not feel comfortable not knowing if she'd be safe. (It was raining pretty hard that early, too).

Our high councilman spoke about the proceedings at Stake Council this morning. He said the flooding was the only topic addresses. Our stake has been divided in two groups: wards that flooded and those who would be asked to make donations. My ward had very minimal damage. . . . I mentioned in my last post that we are on a hill, but what I really meant was a plateau. Most of my ward is on this plateau & sustained minimal damage.

He delivered a message about the General Conference in Salt Lake City when the residents were asked to go get the handcart pioneers in Wyoming and bring them in. He likened our situation to that, and asked that we give donations of baby supplies (formula, food, diapers, clothing), non-perishable foods, and basic hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, washcloths, etc).

He advised us that we could use the time after meetings were over to go shopping for these items or bring what we had at home. We only contributed things from around our home. It felt great to have these things around in case of our own emergency, but even better to give them away to people who are in dire need.

Shopping in our basement and closets . . . pretty good haul

Nathan went to deliver our things and said that the tables they had set up to collect were quickly filled--a constant stream of people pouring in and out delivering needed supplies. Later, he spoke to a member who said that the combined contributions filled two trailers.

The items will be delivered to a distribution center in Loveland to be used in the coming days and weeks.

We woke up to more rain . . . which was not predicted to fall until 9 am but started early. It's done now, at 5 p.m. My mood is significantly altered by the presence of a sunny sky. It was so nice to have the sun all afternoon FR and most of yesterday. This morning was harder with the rain. No rain

Our stake, the Loveland, Colorado Stake, has been assigned to ask for help from the Cheyenne East Stake if we need manpower to meet needs that our stake cannot handle. Each of the other stakes in our area, Boulder, Longmont, Greeley, Fort Collins, have similarly been partnered with another stake. I love knowing that there help has already been assigned. 

We will make it--it will be interesting to see which roads are worked on, and which ones will not be repaired.

My parents had some more flooding (BOO!) and I am supposed to appear for jury duty tomorrow. Never a dull moment.

"Biblical" flooding

This is what scares me the most . . . . erosion, makes that road look like a cracker

Our basement is dry and we are in no danger of flooding at this point. (We live on a hill).
My parents had a small amount of water damage in their basement. We've experienced emotions of guilt at not experiencing more personal loss . . . the damage this flood has caused throughout our state will be felt for a long time. It spread hundreds of miles and affects millions of people. We will have opportunities to serve.

The Coloradoan, our local paper, posted an aerial view of many areas in our county. If you click on THIS LINK, you will arrive at the Coloradoan homepage. About one third of the way down, there are some videos . . . one of them is titled "Aerial tour of Fort Collins, Loveland flooding."

Nathan's office is the green roof at 1:24 in the video. . . . the parking lot that's almost completely submerged. There was water on the east and the north. Around 50 people bagged 7 tons of dirt yesterday morning to prevent penetration. So far, it looks like the water has stayed out, and it has receded today to leave the parking lot dry.

We were not the hardest hit, by any means, but seeing this video brought home the damage a little more.

School was cancelled on FR. The kids were elated to stay home. I don't think they understood the magnitude, so we watched the news together last night--then they knew a little more.

The photos tell the story really well . . . destruction everywhere. I was in Lafayette, CO this morning. One of the Boulder residents told me that of 50 bridges in Boulder County, 30 were gone. Washed away. I crossed both the St. Vrain and Big Thompson rivers on I-25 and was surprised to see with my own eyes how high the water is. Lots of people out taking pictures and a big slow down in traffic as everyone slowed down to see.

If you want to see more . . . there are thousands. I grabbed the one above from the link below. You might laugh, you will be shocked, you might cry. Take time for the captions.
9 News Photo Gallery

A couple more facts . . . the average rainfall in our area is 12-15 inches. Many communities got nearly that much in 24-48 hours. The other interesting tidbit is that one inch of rain is comparable to 10 inches of snow . . . for example Red Feather Lakes, who had 14 inches in these storms, had the equivalent moisture of 140 inches of snow--well over 10 feet.

It's going to be an interesting school year. . . day before Labor Day weekend was cancelled due to excessive heat in UN-airconditioned buildings, this Friday for excessive rain . . . guess what's coming next???
SNOW!

More to come as Colorado re-builds.