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Estes Park Flood 2013

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Water rushes past Brownfields on Elkhorn Avenue on Thursday. Much of the tourist economy of Elkhorn and Estes Park will be disrupted by the historic flood.
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Water rushes past Brownfields on Elkhorn Avenue on Thursday. Much of the tourist economy of Elkhorn and Estes Park will be disrupted by the historic flood.

  • A usually small creek overruns its banks and closes Carriage Drive on Thursday. The floodwaters made travel in Estes Park difficult, at best, and often dangerous.
  • Signs stick out of the flood waters of Fish Creek Road on Thursday. The intersection was closed and eventually collapsed in the flood waters.
  • Cindy Knight can only watch as the Fish Creek rises around her house on Thursday. While the flood waters were taking her back deck off, her concern was for her cat trapped inside.
  • With the Olympus Dam floodgates open, the Big Thompson River inundates Wapiti Meadows. The increased flow may have kept Estes Park from even more flooding, but led to the collapse of a section of US 34 above Drake.
  • The Fish Creek runs over its namesake road at Brodie Avenue on Thursday morning. Waters rose trapping residents in their neighborhoods as rain continued.
  • Town employees place cones to narrow Elkhorn Avenue as water from the Big Thompson River overriun its banks. Officials are comparing the flood crest to that of the Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1977.
  • A house with people still inside is completely surrounded by the Fish Creek on Thursday. Flooding closed roads and neighborhoods around Estes Park as heavy rain soaked the entire Front Range.
  • Mocha-colored water from the Big Thompson and Fall rivers splash over the bridge on East Riverside Drive on Thursday morning. Heavy rain has led to closures of Hwys US 34, US 36, and SH 7, as well as a dam breach leading to flooding from Big Elk Meadow down to Lyons.
  • Heather Teirney photographs flood waters covering the Wapiti Meadow below Olympus Dam on Thursday morning. Extra water released from the dam flooded the area, but may have helped the areas above the dam from getting worse.
  • Mud burries a fence on the the south side of Fish Creek Road. The creek overran its banks begining Thursday and is now on and around the road onthe south side of Carriage Hills.
  • Chocolate-brown water of the Bog Thompson River gushes past the spillway just below the Estes Park Visitor Center on Friday. Forcasters believe there is more to come.
  • Brown floodwater rushes through the intersection of Elkhorn and Morain avenues on Friday. Town officials pointed out that the floodwater is untreated and not a safe place in which to splash around.
  • Water rushes past Brownfields on Elkhorn Avenue on Thursday. Much of the tourist economy of Elkhorn and Estes Park will be disrupted by the historic flood.
  • A bridge over the Big Thopson River sits damaged and unusable on Saturday, isolating the Glacier Lodge. The bridge withstood years of spring runoff only to be nearly swept away by flood waters this week.
  • Sixteen inches of water fills the basement of the Hiking Hut on Saturday. The business, which was one of the first to reopen after the Mall Fire, found much of their back stock ruined by the flood.
  • Water continues running through the parking lot at the public library on Saturday. The library is one of a few places with wi-fi internet, along with the evacuation centers and Notchtop cafe.
  • Friends and volunteers help clear mud from Outdoor World on Saturday. Many businesses along Elkhorn Avenue found mud covering their floors when they got to the stores.
  • A normally tiny stream floods the police station parking on Saturday.
  • Silt and sand fill the performance space in Barlow Plaza on Saturday. The town and its people have months of work ahead to restore Estes Park to what it was.
  • Water streams out of Dorsey Lake on Saturday after the dam was breached by flood waters. While the road in and the small pond were damaged, only minor water damage was reported at the YMCA of the Rockies.
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