Melting snow, not rain, causing flooding in Cascade

Cascade residents are seeing what appears to be a record amount of melting snow that is causing some flooding before the arrival of an expected rainy weekend.

R.C. Smith, of El Paso County Emergency Management, said more snow than usual has fallen this spring, and the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire burned trees and vegetation that normally would have soaked up the runoff.

“We got 12 to 18 inches of snow on Pyramid Mountain in the storm last weekend,” Smith said. “The underground aquifers are full, too. The water has nowhere else to go.”

Smith said several creeks and drainage areas are full and roaring down on neighborhoods. Tom Harris, a lifetime resident, is using sandbags and rocks to protect his home from water only several feet away.

“I have no confidence,” Harris said. “A big rainstorm is going to take us out. If it’s flooding now, what’s going to happen if it floods five times as it did in 2013?”

Harris pointed to a dark line around his home showing how high previous floods came. He said he and three other affected homeowners hope the county will buy them out eventually.

“This is my home, but I’m prepared to leave,” he said. “You can’t fight Mother Nature. I’ve never seen water this high here.”

Smith said the county spent about $750,000 on flood control projects in the area.

However, neighbors said because a homeowner at the bottom of the mountain didn’t allow a project on his property, water and sediment now flood the intersection of Ute Pass and Severy avenues.

The water otherwise would have drained into a nearby culvert, neighbors said, instead of down the north side of U.S. 24.

The intersection is near the town’s post office, library, fire station and community center. Traffic is able to drive through the area.

Smith said flood control projects are limited in their ability to protect lives and property, and he advises people to know in advance where to go and what to do in a flash flood.