EL PASO COUNTY – Cleanup efforts are underway in Hanover as the community recovers from Friday’s flash flooding. The flood water washed out roads and left people trapped in their cars along I-25 near Pikes Peak International Raceway.
Entire neighborhoods were stuck in their homes as the rushing water overtook the only roads leading to their subdivisions.
“I didn’t think that we’d get anything like we did yesterday,” said Tom Eves, who lives near a bridge washed out by the powerful flood waters.
Eves has been living here in the midway ranch area for a while but Friday was unlike most days.
“We’ve been here 11 years and seen water in that arroyo maybe four times,” he said.
Fast-moving flood waters overtook the only road leading in and out of his neighborhood.
The sight was also uncommon for firefighters.
“This is probably the worse that I’ve seen it since I’ve been with the department,” said Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum.
“But the problem is we have a localized rain event that dumps three inches of water and it’s kind of a straight line from the mountains along west of Highway 115.”
The straight line of water packed a lot of force.
“A lot of water, and it all comes down either here or around the other side where it was flooding out the interstate. there was a lot of power there,” added Eves.
That power dragged with it large debris.
“Found that there was some trees laying across the road,” said Tatum.
“Probably about three or four foot of water that was coming up over top of the road.”
It also took down a couple of culverts and a water line.
Eves said he was on a boil water notice earlier but this Saturday afternoon, he had no water.
“We ran out of water about maybe 2 o’clock this afternoon,” Eves said.
Nearly 400 residents now have water in the Midway Ranch area, but the water is still not fit to use without precautionary measures. Friday’s flash flooding damaged a water line and left many without water until Sunday afternoon.
The Hanover Fire Department has several resources available for those in need of water including delivering water to residents who need water for livestock. Hanover Fire Chief Tatum said residents are asked to call him directly to set up a water drop off at (719) 492-2729.
It is unclear how long residents will need to boil their water but a water operator is now checking to make sure no other water lines have been compromised.
Important into from Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum regarding Wigwam Mutual Water customers affected by Friday’s flash flooding in the Midway Ranch area: pic.twitter.com/XSQETREznz
— Zach Thaxton (@ZachThaxton) August 19, 2018
But Eves is hopeful it’ll get resolved soon, especially with crews arriving at daylight to clean up debris and put the roadway back together.
“They’ve been out there all day working hard.”
Hanover Fire says cleanup crews will likely be out here until next week repairing and fortifying that bridge.
But that all depends on the weather and with the ground as saturated as it is, more rain could potentially spell out more damages.
