La Veta residents battle to keep Cucharas River from flooding

The usually quiet Cucharas River roared loudly Tuesday after a day of almost constant rain.

“I’ve lived here 25 years and never seen this. Ever,” Frieda Lessar said.

Lessar checking on her friend’s house near the golf course that is right next to the river.

“He said (the water is) about 6 feet from his shed right now,”

Across the highway, a small tractor is being used to build a buffer between a large pool of water and a house.

“This is my first year here, so I wasn’t expecting this,” Mick Wrath said.

Wrath and a friend tried to keep his house from flooding by building the buffer, as what looks like a lake is creeping in.

“All of the sudden it got out of control here,” Wrath said. “This is the 14th hole. You tee off here, it’s part of the golf course. But obviously not anymore.”

Downstream, the Cucharas River spilling over its banks where it ended up completely flooding First Street with several inches of water.

“I’ve never seen it flow this fast and this hard and blow out the banks like it has,” Lesser said.

The town of La Veta is still on pre-evacuation notice as of Tuesday night. Currently, no homes are in immediate danger. Enough sand for thousands of sandbags was dropped off Tuesday to help protect individual houses.