Woman says hail, flash flood almost killed her

A Colorado Springs woman said she barely escaped hail and flash flood waters that devastated her apartment.

Ronda Williams was home Monday afternoon when she noticed water from the heavy rain starting to seep through her front door. She tried to patch it up with towels but suddenly, the door broke open and the water pushed her to the back wall. She ran out the back door as hail and heavy rain broke her windows and quickly flooded her basement apartment.

“It came in so fast. The doors flew open. The refrigerator is upside down. All of our wood furniture is gone,” said Williams.

Williams said if she’d spent an extra minute in her home, she may not have survived.

“I ran out without my purse, I ran out with out anything. It was all I could do to get out of there or get buried in it. No time to think. No nothing,” said Williams.

On Tuesday, Williams and her husband sifted through a muddy pile of possessions. They were able to salvage some mementos and photographs, but everything else was destroyed.

“There was no time to get anything. It was get out of there and get out of there fast,” said Williams.

Tony Seal with Tony’s Home Improvement was helping Williams clean out her home.

“It’s the kind of stuff you see on the news. People die from a flash flood. This was that catastrophic,” said Seal.

His team spent hours shoveling out hail. At one point, Seal said the water level in Williams’ home was over six feet high. As of Tuesday morning, there were still several feet of hail inside the home. All the furniture and the refrigerator was flipped upside down.

“The furniture was tossed around like ships on the ocean,” said Seal.

Seal was glad that Williams made it out safely.

“Floating refrigerators, broken door jambs; I expected to see a body,” said Seal.

The Red Cross set up a temporary headquarters at Platte and Logan Avenues to pass out supplies and help victims of the flash flood.