Pueblo County reeling from flood damage

Dozens of Pueblo County homeowners are still feeling the effects of a record-setting month of rain.

The county has received about 65 reports of damage to homes, including a report by Bill Alt who says recent storms have lowered his property value and dumped large piles of sand onto his property.

“This has a value,” Alt said of his property. “In other words, if I deface the Mona Lisa it’s still the Mona Lisa but it won’t sell like the Mona Lisa,” Alt said.

He estimates the value of his property on the 2400 block of North Interstate 25 decreased by $100,000 from last month’s rain alone.

“Now instead of just flooding and going away, the water stays and stays and stays and of course that makes the destruction and the erosion and the debris and all that that much worse,” he said.

The county is keeping track of flood-related damage on personal property, but has its own list of public infrastructure that needs to be repaired, like Overton Road. It fell into Fountain Creek last month.

Pueblo County Commissioner Liane “Buffie” McFadyen said it’s critical to rebuild Overton Road quickly because it’s used an emergency route.

“If there’s an accident for any stretch of I-25 in and around north Pueblo County, much of that traffic would be routed from PPIR down into Pueblo, from Overton Road,” McFadyen said.

FEMA estimated it would cost $250,000 to rebuild the road where it once was, but McFadyen said that’s not an option the county would consider.

“We literally can’t put Overton Road back where it was. If we put it back, it would wash away. It could be in just a couple of days,” McFadyen said.

The preferred option for the county is to reroute Overton Road, which would cost an estimated $800,000.