Denver Needs A Good Wash Every So Often

Confluence of Cherry Creek and South Platte River at Confluence Park, Denver, 09/12/2013

It has been raining for nearly three days straight now, and at one point the rain was coming down at a rate of an inch an hour, with a number of areas recording 10 inches of rain in the past 24 hours.

That's a lot of rain. How much rain? Well, if it was snow, which it would have be if this storm hit two months later in the year, it would be the equivalent of approximately 10 feet of snow. 

So, yeah, the Denver metro area is getting a bath.

The bad is the danger of flash flooding, which has claimed the lives of at least 2 people in the past two days. The areas north of Denver are really getting hit hard, with the cities of Boulder, Longmont, Broomfield, Thornton, Commerce City, Aurora and a few other places getting drenched to the point that roads have become impassable and non-essential government offices, schools, and businesses shutting down.

The good is the replenishment of lake, river, and reservoir levels (which is also bad, as reportedly 12 dams are overflowing as type). 

This morning I had to go out to east Denver, near Aurora. From my home in Lakewood to my destination on Chambers road, a little over 23 miles, took nearly two hours. The main west to east artery, I-70, was flooded along the right lanes of the highway in several areas, which forced bottlenecks that backed traffic up for miles.

The parking lot of the warehouse had more than a foot of water in it when I pulled in. The truck made it through the small pond to higher ground well enough, but getting through the parking lot to the front door required a bit of hop, skip, and jumping.

The rain alternated between torrential downpour and light drenching for the five and a half hours I was in east Denver. By the time I headed off for home, the rain had let up to a drizzle, which made it much easier to negotiate the road.

Much easier, but not any faster. There were so many detours due to closures I actually had to stop in downtown Denver to take a break and get a small snack. One hour driving 2/10's of a mile an hour is no fun at all.

The rain is expected to continue through tomorrow. Hopefully, everyone who may have been in danger has reached higher ground and the only thing anyone will have to deal with when the storm is finally over will be cleaning up the mess.