Colorado flood deaths reach eight but number of missing continues to fall

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/colorado-flood-deaths-missing

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Eight people have been confirmed dead following the flooding in Colorado, but the number of those missing continued to fall on Tuesday as search-and-rescue teams began to reach devastated communities.

Hundreds of people were still unaccounted for in the state, but the number has fallen from more than 1,200 to around half that, officials said. Emergency crews had hoped the number of people missing would decline as rescuers reached more homes and those stranded were able to contact families and friends.

After days of heavy rain and floods which have destroyed or damaged around 19,000 homes, clearing skies and receding waters allowed crews to intensify their search efforts and assess the damage caused by the historic floods on Tuesday. Twenty-one helicopters fanned out over the mountain-sides to drop supplies and airlift those who needed help.

Much of the effort is focussed on remote foothill and canyon communities in north-central Colorado, where the bulk of nearly 12,000 people evacuated since last week were stranded due to washed-out roads, bridges and communication lines, state emergency officials said.

Residents of Hygiene, a small community east of the Rocky Mountain foothills, returned home on Monday to find homes destroyed and mud blanketing roads. The St Vrain Creek left trucks in ditches and carried items as far as two miles (3.2km) downstream.

"My own slice of heaven, and it's gone," Bill Marquedt said of his home.<br />Residents set to sweeping, shoveling and rinsing, but the rebuilding task was overwhelming.

"What now? We don't even know where to start," said Genevieve Marquez. "It's not even like a day-by-day or a month thing."

"I want to think that far ahead but it's a minute-by-minute thing at this point," she said.

Officials have said it could take weeks or even months to search through flood-ravaged areas looking for people who died. In mountain towns, major roads were washed away or covered by mud and rock slides. Hamlets like Glen Haven were reduced to debris and key infrastructure like gas lines and sewers systems were destroyed.

Hundreds of homes around Estes Park, next to Rocky Mountain national park, could be unreachable and uninhabitable for up to a year, town administrator Frank Lancaster said. The town of Lyons was almost completely abandoned. Emergency crews gave the few remaining residents, mostly wandering Main Street looking for status updates, a final warning to leave on Monday.

In 2012 Colorado's billion dollar tourism industry was threatened after wildfires devastated the state. The floods of the past week has struck communities in the very mountains that attract millions of hikers, campers and skiers. Some tourism operators want to see a media campaign to counter the photos of raging rivers and towns ruined by muddy floodwaters.

David Leinweber owns Angler's Covey in Colorado Springs, which caters to fly fishermen seeking prime trout. He said the images on television and social media make it look as if this year's fishing season is finished.

"Our out-of-state business is down 15%. People don't realise that we still have 9,000 miles (14,500km) of fishable water and 2,000 lakes in Colorado that aren't affected," he said. "And they won't know unless we tell them."

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