200 missing as floods hit Colorado

LOS ANGELES: More than 200 people remain unaccounted for and four people have been confirmed dead after the worst floods for decades hit the US state of Colorado, authorities said on Saturday.
More than two months of rain fell in less than two weeks, cutting off communities from power and clean water. More heavy rain was expected on Saturday across the state.
President Barack Obama has signed an emergency declaration for the state, and ordered federal aid and resources to bolster state and local efforts. The death toll rose by one, making a toll of three confirmed dead in Boulder County, and one body in Colorado Springs further to the south.
“Many communities in our western mountains are completely isolated, no water, no septic, no sewer, we lost every roadway leading to western end of our county,” said Boulder County’s Office of Emergency Management in an update.
“We don’t yet know fully about homes and lives lost in canyons and mountain communities. This will go on for several days,” it added.
TV pictures from the devastated region showed roads crumbled into surging rivers, as mud- and debris-filled water poured down from mountainsides along Colorado’s so-called Front Range, a north-sound region where the Rockies meet the Great Plains.
Several mountain towns and villages near Boulder were cut off temporarily by the floods, including Jamestown and Lyons, where as many as 2,500 people were being evacuated.
Four helicopters, including three Black Hawk choppers, are being used to ferry rescue personnel and supplies to stranded communities and carry out medical evacuations in the area, where emergency crews are “heavily dependent on air ops due to road conditions.”
The “weather has given us a break to do a lot of flights,” it said, adding that some flood waters are receding.
But it added: “We have more rain in the forecast; a storm tonight could set us back.”
“These communities have all suffered long-term losses. This is going to take a while,” it said, adding that recover efforts would be “long-term and very expensive.”
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that surging waters can be more treacherous than they appear, because they are full of debris and mud.
“People try to walk through what looks like a harmless foot or two of water. You have to realize this is like liquid cement and you can be swept away,” he said.