Beulah continues to deal with flash flooding, concerns about water sources

BEULAH, Colo. (KRDO) -- As officials held a town meeting to talk about how to solve Beulah's water crisis, more rain arrived.

With the rain came more floods.

"This is just another blow," Charissa Fryberger, Interim District Manager for Pine Drive Water said. "We knew that flooding would follow as a result of the fire, because we burned all four watersheds nearly completely."

Crossing bridges with rushing water flowing beneath, like video from earlier today at Squirrel Creek showed, seems pretty treacherous. Highway 78 was closed for an extended period of time because of it.

Officials say it's not the rain itself that is causing concern, but rather water carrying debris from higher elevations.

"Beulah can handle the rain. It's the high country around the area, because when it rains up there and that water starts rushing down, it's not just carrying water, it's carrying debris," Fryberger explained. "It's carrying ash and all sorts of gook down here. Over the last couple of days, it's become a significant problem."

The watersheds act like a bowl and channel water down into the valley, officials say. This is just another obstacle for the people trying to rebuild their lives after the "Aspen Acres" fire.

"There's a lot of people trying to figure out what's next and how to move forward," Fryberger said. "When we add the flooding on top of that, it sort of feels like a setback to whatever progress has been made."

Beulah was under flash flood warnings or emergencies for most of Tuesday, and is expected to be dealing with flooding for a few more days.

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