Coloradans are watching fires in Washington state
Charred trees are part of our landscape now- lingering memories of what happened in Mountain Shadows more than three years ago.
Tom Kimball remembers it very well.
“I remember the whole sky was ablaze,” he said.
Later, the burn scar gave way to flooding.
“It doesn’t take much rain to cause flash flooding there. Typically you can have 1″ of rain to cause flash flooding,” said Dr. Paul Wolyn, of the National Weather Service.
Every time there are heavy rains, tons of sediment are brought into the Rockrimmon and Mountain Shadows neighborhoods.
So the question is, does the future for areas that are seeing fires farther off to our west include things like retention ponds.
The fires are so massive in places like Washington state you can see them from space.
Wolyn said, “With a high intensity fire, (if) conditions are right there could be other problems as well.”
Problems we’re all too familiar with on the Front Range.
Two years after the Waldo Canyon Fire, heavy rain near a burn scar is causing even more headaches, like the sinkhole on Chestnut Drive in western Colorado Springs.
“South Douglas Creek is the drainage basin, which is below the burn scar,” said Aaron Egbert, an engineer with the city of Colorado Springs.
People who have experienced the fires here say they can sympathize with what is happening in Washington state.
“It’s amazing,” said Kimball.
They know there will be a long road ahead for victims of the fires there.
The threat for flooding is the reason for the massive mitigation efforts that have been undertaken in our area, but when a massive amount of rains fall, those projects may not be enough.
