Fountain Creek through Pueblo reaches 16-year high
Fountain Creek through Pueblo reached levels Tuesday afternoon it hasn’t seen since 1999.
Pueblo Assistant Fire Chief Bill Nemick said the creek reached flows of 18,400 cubic feet per second, but it quickly receded.
The murky and fast-moving waters on Fountain Creek knocked down just about anything in its path, including trees. Pueblo firefighters spent the morning moving homeless people away from camps and to higher ground.
“There’s a camp real close to where we’re standing that is gone,” Nemick said. “The bank has eroded away enough so that everything he had would be lost down the creek.
Nemick urges people to stay away from Fountain Creek, which flows into the Arkansas River.
“The banks when they do fall they get undercut and you think you’re on solid ground and the next thing you know the bank falls off and you’re in the river,” he said.
The river has even meandered its way around homes in Pueblo County, including houses on Booth Avenue. The road was covered in water for several hours. Several neighbors were removing water from their basements, and say they’re frustrated because it didn’t even rain there.
“I believe it’s a result from the rain from the Springs because it didn’t rain here yesterday at all,” said Jason Lott, who was building a levee around his home.
“It’s not necessarily the rain we get in Pueblo. It’s the rain they get in Springs,” Sheriff Kirk Taylor said. “If we were to get another rain like we did last night in Springs tonight, then we could be in trouble on the Fountain.”
Neighbors said it’s a reminder that more flood mitigation is needed on Fountain Creek.
“We’re asking somehow, some way if we could possibly get some type of control on the Fountain Creek as they call it. By the time it gets down to Pueblo, it’s the Fountain ‘River,'” said Niki Lewis, a Pueblo County resident.
The Bureau of Reclamation reduced flows from the Pueblo dam to control flooding where Fountain Creek meets the Arkansas River.
Several roads in Pueblo County remain closed because of flooding:
-Red Creek Springs Rd. at the low crossing in Beulah
-Northcreek Rd. in Beaulah is closed to one lane
-4500 to 5200 block of Overton Rd.
