Highway 24 businesses: Rain is up but panic is down

Businesses along Highway 24 said despite the summer’s heavy rain, panic among customers has been low and revenue has been high.

Ute Pass, a stretch of Highway 24 west of Manitou Springs near Cascade, has been plagued with flash flooding since June 2012’s Waldo Canyon Fire. After flooding wreaked havoc on the road and took a driver’s life, the Colorado Department of Transportation would shut down the highway during heavy rain. Closures would last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.

“It was stressful for everyone because you didn’t know how long it was going to be closed,” said business owner Tom Haggard.

Haggard owns the North Pole – Santa’s Workshop in Cascade. He said his business took a hit during the summer in 2013 and 2014 because Highway 24 was shut down often.

This summer, it’s rained more than all of last year combined. However, Highway 24 was only shut down once in May because of weather. Haggard credits effective flood mitigation work and C-DOT’s new protocols during heavy rain.

“My hat’s off to C-DOT for the improvements they made and for changing the protocol and 24 has not been a problem all summer, and business has been good all summer, and we have had a lot of rain all summer,” said Haggard.

Karen Bodine’s family owns Pikes Peak Gourmet Popcorn along Highway 24. She said people used to panic when the sky would cloud over.

“We just wouldn’t see the customers because they would be in such a hurry to come up or come down that we didn’t see a lot of people stopping like we used to,” said Bodine.

However, Bodine said business has been back as fears of road closures have subsided.

“I think people are finally like, ‘we’re going to be OK now,'” said Bodine.

Abigail Hills, a hostess at The Wines of Colorado, made similar observations.

“People are more encouraged to come to this restaurant and they aren’t afraid of coming and not being able to get home ,” said Hills.

Storm Tracker 13 meteorologist Jay Polk said there are storms in the forecast, however none of them should produce flash flooding threats on Highway 24.