PAGOSA SPRINGS, Colo. – Floodwaters on the San Juan River swept away a cabin and smashed it into a bridge as evacuations, outages and closures spread across Pagosa Springs.
The San Juan River crested around 17 feet after the latest round of rain, adding to the damage left from flooding a week earlier.
Flooding forced evacuations and knocked out cell phone service in the area. Roads and a bridge also closed as water rose across parts of town.
Andrew Dustin, an evacuee, said, “It pretty much took out, maybe three quarters of this neighborhood down here, my house is safe because I put it on three feet above the ground level.”
A mobile home was also swept away in the floodwaters before it hit a bridge.
Henry Maes, a resident, said, “People are hurting around here, you missed it about a half hour ago a house was floating down the river and it was already in pieces.”
Maes said he was walking across a bridge closed to vehicles to get his heart medication.
Maes said, “I’m going to go see if the post office has it, you know I might not even get it, because, I don’t know if they can even transport mail.”
Pagosa Springs was not the only southern Colorado community dealing with flooding. Floodwaters also hit Durango, where KOB 4 spoke with resident Rob Bitner after he returned from a vacation.
Bitner said, “We had a hotel room last night, do we need to go, get another one tonight? We don’t know.”
