Cleanup underway after powerful storm sweeps through southern Colorado

Cleanup is underway Tuesday morning after heavy rain tore through southern Colorado Monday night.

“I went upstairs and looked out my window and the water was rushing down the drainage ditch like a raging river,” said Bonnie Barbosa.

Barbosa lives near Robidoux Circle and Wooten Road where water came rushing under and over a bridge.

“We were walking down and saw the asphalt. I’ve never seen that happen before. never seen it get that bad,” said Barbosa.

Crews had to close down the road Monday night.

“We had a major storm event. This is the west fork of Sand Creek and the culvert and bridge itself was not able to handle the flow so the water flew over the top and started to lift up some of the asphalt,” said Aaron Egbert, senior engineer for the city of Colorado Springs.

The city hopes to have the bridge reopened by the end of Tuesday.

Not too far away near Airport Road and Academy Boulevard, rocks and debris scattered across the road give an idea of how powerful the storm was.

“When i came down to come to work this morning it was quite a mess here at the front entrance. I knew we had a lot of trouble,” said Eric Testorff maintenance crew at Memorial Gardens Cemetery.

Testorff says the entrance of the cemetery was a mess and looked like a pond.

“It breaks past that curve right there and kind of sweeps into the area here. Some of it comes off the cemetery but most of the rock and sand just comes down the gutters,” said Testorff.