Numerous road closures across El Paso County due to flooding Monday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Flooding due to heavy rain and hail Monday closed multiple roads in El Paso County.

According to the Colorado Springs Police Department, portions of Marksheffel Road were closed.

The east end of Peaceful Valley Road -- where it crosses Jimmy Camp Creek, east of the intersection of Marksheffel and Mesa Ridge Parkway -- closed at around 6 a.m. Monday and wasn't expected to reopen until late Monday night.

Water poured into the creek from four directions and made getting out of the neighborhood impossible for residents; a pickup driver tried to cross but thought better of it and backed up.

“I’m a caregiver for my fiance’," said Canyon Labree. "He’s back at the house by himself. My mother’s out of town, so there’s nobody there. We’ve got a ton of animals. Am I worried? A little bit. Just a lot of stuff to figure out now.”

The road separates Fountain from unincorporated El Paso County but is in Fountain's jurisdiction.

“We’re going to get police down here to at least try to keep it safe until the water goes down," said Robert McDonald, Fountain's transportation director. "Once the water recedes to a level where we think it’s safe to pass, we’ll have people come back out and do an inspection of the roadway. Make sure the roadway is still safe to go over. Make sure the water hasn’t undermined the roadway in any location.”

Some neighbors said that such flooding isn't unusual after such heavy rain, but others said that they had never seen the creek so flooded before.

"The only real solution is to build a bridge across the creek," McDonald said. "That would cost up to $5 million, and we don't have the funding for that yet."

Around 1:19 p.m., the area of Marksheffel between Barnes Road and North Carefree Circle were shut down due to increased flooding in the surrounding area.

At 2:11 p.m., the Colorado Springs Fire Department said that the intersection of Milton E. Proby Prarkway and Powers Boulevard was closed near the the airport due to flooding; several stretches of South Powers were temporarily closed because of the weather.

Flooding and debris also snarled traffic at the intersection of Hancock Expressway at Chelton Road in southeast Colorado Springs; also closed was the intersection of Main Street and Security Boulevard in Security-Widefield.

Below is a list of road closures as of 3:18 p.m. from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office:

• Peyton Hwy (1/2 m. south of county line)
• Galley Rd. and Peterson
• Garrett Road (e. Blaney and Good Fortune)
• Judge Orr (Curtis to Elbert)
• Elbert (1 mile north of Murphy)
• Security and Main
• Widefield and Fontaine
• Sunny Slope (1/2 mile east of Blaney Road)

Drivers are told to avoid water-covered roads and not attempt to drive through them.

But flash flooding developed so quickly that some residents in the Deerfield Hills neighborhood of southeast Colorado Springs were trapped in their homes briefly -- leaving streets, yards and garages under several feet of water and even flooding the interiors of some houses.

Migdlia Whittaker waded through the high water, accompanied by her daughter, Kristina.

"I went downstairs and water was coming in through my fireplace." she explained. I freaked out."

Kristina was there to check on her mom.

"Her door camera showed water coming in from everywhere," she said. "I told her to check her garage and it's also flooded."

Migdlia said that her insurance company told her that she's not covered for damage.

With all of the rain that fell heavily in a short time period, runoff was slow to drain because drainage infrastructures were full, including a drainage channel through the neighborhood.

By 4 p.m., however, most of the flooding had subsided -- leaving a layer of mud, debris and landscaping on streets, sidewalks and in yards.

"I've lived here since 2006 and I've never seen it flood like this," said neighbor Darrell Perrow.