Avondale homeowner prepares for the next storm

Anthony Ruybal isn’t going to sit idly by and wait for the next storm to hit eastern Pueblo County.

Ruybal, 55, created a ditch across the street from his house on Avondale Boulevard to divert water away from his home.

“No one’s paying me to do this. I didn’t ask. I have to do this because I know what’s going to happen if I don’t do this,” Ruybal said.

He acknowledged that the newly formed ditch is county property, but said he’s doing what he needs to do to protect his property.

“I don’t have the right because it’s their ditch. But as long as I’ve lived here, they’ve never touched this ditch one time,” he said.

Ruybal said he wants the county to build a bridge on Avondale Boulevard. He said the two county-managed culverts near his home aren’t big enough for all of the water that flows downstream, toward his home.

“They’re too small for the massive water that we’re getting,” Ruybal said. “It needs to be a big opening.”

Just last week, Avondale Boulevard flooded from a Mother’s Day storm.

“The concerns are from the heavy, torrential rains that we get when a slow moving storm comes across the area and dumps a lot of water then it floods in these areas,” said Chief Mark Mears, of the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.

Mears said Avondale and Overton Road are two of the most flood-prone areas in Pueblo County. He said both pose concerns because of poor drainage in the area.

“It all comes to me right here and I want to try to keep it from flowing in my house, because I’m getting water three to four feet in my house,” Ruybal said.

He said his latest project won’t just help him. His neighbors have temporarily moved out while they wait for their house and furniture to dry out from the last storm.

“I’m trying to swim myself out of water by putting dirt, but the water’s getting higher and I only could hold so much water until it floods me in,” Ruybal said.