Archive for Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Nearly two inches of rain falls in county
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Steamboat Springs A strong series of storms that moved through the region Sunday and early Monday dropped massive amounts of rain and hail, but managed to cause only minor problems for city and county officials.
"I have not found any true damage around the county," said Routt County Emergency Management Director Chuck Vale.
Fans were drying the carpet at the Routt County Courthouse annex Monday afternoon, after clogged roof drains overflowed and leaked into the building. Tim Winter, the county's building and plant director, said the water damaged some ceiling tiles in addition to saturating the carpet. Winter said there were a few leaks at the recently completed Routt County Justice Center, the result of previously overlooked construction damage.
"There was nothing real significant, but a couple little things we'll have to deal with," Winter said.
Steamboat Springs transportation department employees reported no road problems resulting from the downpours, and Routt County Road and Bridge Director Paul Draper said only one road, near Clark, had its edges washed out. Draper also said county projects planned for Tuesday had to be put on hold because of all the moisture.
Vale said the storms brought heavy precipitation throughout the county. The most he measured was 1.9 inches near Steamboat Lake and the least was 0.78 inches in Yampa. Vale said that is the most rain the county has received in a short period of time in recent memory. Vale said hail that fell in Northwest Colorado was as large as one inch in diameter near Meeker. He said the hail knocked leaves off of trees, leading to some clogged drains, but that otherwise the rain brought only "typical water damage."
"For that much rain and hail, I think we did pretty well," Vale said.
Debris also created problems in tunnels on the Yampa River Core Trail, Open Space Supervisor Craig Robinson said. Robinson said some of the pumps that pump water out of the tunnels were clogged by debris, but cleared on Monday.
Routt County Cooperative Extension Director C.J. Mucklow said no big damage had been reported to crops, but that the hail probably had some affect on grain that has not yet been harvested.
There was also some good news from the heavy rains. The Yampa River's stream flow more than doubled and was running at 233 cubic feet per second Monday afternoon, according to data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Yampa's flows were down near 70 cfs last week.
"I haven't seen a spike like that in a long time," Robinson said. "More water is probably a good thing."

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