VALLECITO —  Chief Bruce Evans of the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District spent much of Wednesday in a side-by-side, motoring around a flooded neighborhood northeast of Durango in southwestern Colorado.

“Yesterday we had a breach in the levee over here,” he said while pointing out damage as the off-road vehicle drove through the flooded Vallecito neighborhood. 

The small community in unincorporated La Plata County is just starting the long process of recovery after storms, fed by a hurricane and tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean, dropped a deluge of water and flooded parts of southwestern Colorado. In La Plata County, the floodwater damaged nearly 100 homes and forced evacuations for 390 houses. The impacts reached farther east, like Pagosa Springs and South Fork.

Vallecito residents spent days in hotels, friends’ houses and emergency shelters, not knowing whether their homes flooded or when they’d be able to go back. 

Some saw their homes for the first time Wednesday. The neighborhood could reopen Thursday morning if weather allows and if the house can be safely accessed, according to officials with the La Plata County Emergency Operations Center.

“We are working right now on that,” Sarah Jacobson, La Plata County spokesperson, said Wednesday at 7 p.m. “Evacuations will be lifted tomorrow, but not for everyone because of road (conditions).”

In response to the flooding, Gov. Jared Polis issued a verbal disaster declaration, and the Department of Revenue extended certain tax deadlines to Dec. 31. 

The state is working on sending the Colorado Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster to the area. Representatives from 211 Colorado are arriving in the Vallecito area Thursday, Jacobson said. 211 Colorado has expertise in responding to flood disasters and can connect locals with resources like Airbnb vouchers, she said.

The largest rainfall totals were recorded upstream from the areas with the worst flooding, state climatologist Russ Schumacher wrote Oct. 11 on the Colorado Climate Center’s blog. The Upper San Juan station, west of Wolf Creek Pass, recorded 6.2 inches of rain on Friday and Saturday. Several other stations recorded more than 5 inches over the two days.

Then on Monday, storms dumped more rain on the area, overflowing the San Juan River and nearby creeks and streams. The storms brought levels on the San Juan River, as it passes through Pagosa Springs, to its highest level since the 1970s. 

Mandatory evacuations in Archuleta County were lifted 6 p.m. Tuesday, but it is not clear how many homes and businesses were affected by the orders. The Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office did not return a call from The Colorado Sun Wednesday. 

The first week

In La Plata County, some Vallecito community members were frustrated as the flood water started to recede. 

One man wondered where the aid was, whether federal aid was delayed because of the shutdown and where all the flood debris was going to go.

The flood damage might not be significant enough to qualify for some types of federal aid, Jacobson said. The county was still working on its debris plan as of Wednesday evening, she said.

The Vallecito community is tucked away in a remote part of northeastern La Plata County, surrounded by the Weminuche Wilderness within the San Juan National Forest. It’s a close-knit community where residents are private, value their independence and occasionally have heated disagreements in community meetings.

The community has grown up on the shores of Vallecito Reservoir, a federal dam project built in the 1940s mainly to help with flood control and irrigation water supplies for the region. The area’s economy ebbs and flows with recreation, booming when boaters and vacationers arrive in the summer and lulling during the shoulder seasons.

Community members were preparing for winter when the floods hit. Some worried about heating their homes: Many depend on wood-burning stoves and used to have stacks of firewood in their yards. All of that washed away. Others were trying to figure out how to do daily tasks, like laundry.

One employee at the Weminuche Woodfire Grill, who declined to share her name, said business has been slower than usual, in part because media reports make it seem like the whole community is flooded. 

It’s not, just the neighborhood north of the lake was impacted. Businesses are still open, she said.

In Vallecito, residents are finding ways to help each other, whether that means organizing cleanup efforts on private property or helping each other connect to online meetings, like the Monday community update. 

“This tested a lot of people,” one Vallecito resident said.

Clearing away debris

Heading north, the flood impacts start to become more clear. Police blocked the road, only allowing officials and residents with red ID tags to enter. A wide swath of water spanned one yard, flowing into a nearby creek which was at least twice its usual size. 

Quick spurts of rain fell Wednesday as road crews, sheriff’s vehicles and other emergency responders zipped around. La Plata County officials spent Wednesday shuttling about 30 community members back to their homes, some for the first time. The residents had about 30 minutes to see their homes and gather important items, like medications.

An excavator was in the middle of Vallecito Creek, which reached historic flow levels over the weekend. Its operator was scooping up large rocks to help recreate the creeks’ original banks and prevent further flooding and erosion, Evans said. 

In one part of the neighborhood, two, 10-foot-tall piles of rubbish sat next to the creek. The former homes were about to fall into the creek — the cement foundation of one home was sticking out above the rushing water, showing just how much of the bank had eroded.

“That was their back yard out in the middle of the river,” said Wilson Hagg, fleet manager for the Upper Pine River fire district. “The water’s eating the land.”  

If they had fallen into the rushing water, they could have caused $2 million to $4 million dollars worth of damage to a downstream bridge, Evans said. The fire chief has the authority to take down an unsafe structure, he said. The fire crews coordinated with the out-of-town homeowners to remove important belongings before tearing down the buildings. 

Now the former homes are a pile of shredded wood, insulation and other building materials next to the surging water.

A community’s next steps

Looking ahead, officials are keeping an eye on trees with shallow root systems that could weaken in the saturated, loose soils, causing them to fall, Evans said. That’s one possible safety hazard.

Officials will need to check septic tanks and the water and sewer system. There have been reports of coliform bacteria, Evans said. E. Coli is one form of this type of bacteria.

The floods washed large amounts of sediment, trees and other debris into the reservoir, where the Pine River Irrigation District staff started to plan their cleanup effort.

The county assessor’s office plans to start assessing the damage Thursday, county assessor Carrie Woodson said. It’s not clear how many damaged homes were second homes or primary residences and the office does not hold those records, Woodson said. 

Everyone is keeping an eye on the weather. 

Showers are forecast to linger through Thursday morning before drying out Friday and through the weekend, Matthew Aleksa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Office in Grand Junction said.

More rain on already saturated areas poses a risk for flooding, Aleksa said. 

“Because we’ve had such an abundance of rainfall over the last five days, the soils are very saturated,” he said. “So any thunderstorm that’s moving over there that’s producing heavy rainfall rates, it can lead to flash flooding. So we are looking at that threat.”