Members of the Incident Management Team were out in the Cameo Subdivisions in Arvada yesterday
assessing structure damage and planning for ways to assist homeowners that have
been impacted by flood waters coming from the Croke Canal. The flood waters carved
a new path through the neighborhood streets spilling into yards, and rushing
against homes.
Where homes have a slight bit of elevation the damage was minimal.
For others it was potentially significant. In some cases running or standing water
has damaged homes and rendered them uninhabitable. Some homeowners have already
placed piles of wet carpeting at the edges of their driveways. The friends and
neighbors of one elderly homeowner were busy pumping water from the property and
were actively mitigating further damage by building berms covered with plastic
to herd flood waters away from the house.
Team members talked to property owners and determined where
sandbags might be placed to route the flood waters away from homes that were not
already damaged. Water ran several inches deep across the area as they
considered plans for another possible round of rain which might increase water
flows. Crews and supplies were ordered for delivery to the neighborhoods for
later in the day.
Working in an interagency effort with employees from the
City of Arvada, IMT crews went to work yesterday afternoon when piles of sand
and bundles of sand bags arrived. The supplies arrived about the same time as a
thunderstorm dropped moderate rain on the already water-soaked area. Crews
worked in the rain trying to divert the floodwaters that continue to threaten
dozens of homes in the neighborhood. These actions represent efforts to
minimize further damage to neighborhoods already hard hit by this historic
flooding event.
