Sunday, August 24, 2014

Now, where was I?

The last time I wrote in this blog, my mountainside town was about to get slammed by a late spring (May!) snowstorm.

And in fact, we did get slammed. I took a series of photos and intended to put a few of them here, showing the accumulation over a period of hours. But I've been pretty busy. Never got around to it.

At left is one of the pictures. All that May snow melted within a day or so.

Of course, no one is breathlessly awaiting my next Lung post, so it's been very easy to let it slide for the last three months. Occasionally I'll think, Gotta update that thing about the storm. Gotta write a bit more about the bike co-op. Gotta write a few of those "Roadside Attractions" posts.

But I haven't got around to any of it.

The post you're reading now is simply to note that we in my little berg are coming up on the one year anniversary of the rains and floods that swept over this area in September 2013, a record storm and flood they're still talking about. I've mentioned the bridge collapsed by the flooding (seen at right, just after it happened) more than once in this blog.

Yet I must be clear: the damage to the bridge in my town is nothing compared to what happened elsewhere in Colorado. The flood's effects were far-reaching and almost beyond belief. Lives were lost. Homes were destroyed. It was a Federal disaster area. Nearly one year later, people are still recovering.

The powers-that-be in this town initially said it would be several years before the collapsed bridge is repaired, because it's a low priority. There's more than one way out of town and the bridge doesn't get a lot of use, compared to other routes.

And yet, there was some preliminary repair work done to this collapsed bridge. It began last spring. Heavy equipment moved in. Piles of dirt. Porta-potties for the construction guys.

The work seemed to go in spurts. The photo at left was taken in mid-August, showing from a slightly different angle the same spot as the collapsed bridge photo above.

Now, though, it appears to be back to square one. They're saying, again, that it will be a few years. I saw that in the paper a few weeks ago.

Who knows what these brainiacs are really thinking?

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