Photo: Organic debris near Cotton Hole Park following the October 11 and 14 flood events.
On Monday, October 20, some of our local government leaders — the Town Council and the Board of County Commissioners — met jointly to discuss the ongoing cleanup and repair efforts taking place following two flood events along the San Juan River on October 11 and 14, and the cost of the cleanup and repairs.
Damage to private properties might be covered by insurance? Or by government disaster relief?
The same questions apply to damage to public property. Insurance? Disaster relief?
It was not helpful that Tropical Storms Priscilla and Raymond arrived in the midst of a federal government shutdown and massive personnel reductions in many federal departments… and right after the Colorado legislature made some fairly drastic cuts to the state budget. The scheduling of the flood events certainly would have benefited from better timing.
(But we’re not clear who was in charge of the scheduling…)
Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation (PAWSD) did not participate in Monday’s discussion, but as it turned out, the estimated impacts to the downtown water system were relatively minimal — estimated at about $31,400.
PAWSD does not operate the sewer system downtown, however, so any sewer system damage resulting from the floods is the responsibility of the Town sanitation district. One key piece of damage was the sewer pipe that hangs below the 1st Street bridge at the east end of downtown. Only about half the pipe remains hanging.
The Town staff have installed a temporary bypass that runs along the sidewalk on the south side of the bridge.
Council member Gary Williams asked about how many homes had been affected by the flood.
Interim County Manager Mike Torres:
“I think there were about a handful that had a significant amount of damage. Some others were affected, but I want to say, only about a handful had actual structural damage.”
Mayor Shari Pierce:
“Do we have any information about the sewer system at San Juan River Village? Like, how long is it going to take to get that back online?”
The San Juan River Village subdivision is located about 5 miles north of downtown Pagosa, and operates its own independent sewer system. It includes about 150 parcels, and about 50 of those parcels have frontage on the San Juan River.
Mike Torres:
“I haven’t heard anything, as of right now. regarding the sewer system out there. Public health has been out there talking to them, and so has our water quality department. So…”
County Commissioner Veronica Medina:
“My understanding is that they are not allowed to live in their homes until that gets resolved…
“I know that Sheriff Le Roux has said we’re hitting around the $10 million mark right now, with the damage to roads and the other County infrastructure.”
According to Town Manager David Harris, the Town is estimating around $9 million in damage to municipal property, as noted yesterday in Part One. So $19 million, perhaps, that the taxpayers will have to cough up…?
… unless Archuleta County and Pagosa Springs can get state and federal disaster assistance?
On that topic, here’s a quote from an article by reporter Katie Shepherd in the October 23 Washington Post:
But hope springs eternal.
The morning following the joint Town-County meeting, the BOCC met for its Tuesday work session, and sat across the table from two gentlemen from Colorado Division of Homeland Security: Riley Frazee and Travis Howell. Also at the table with the commissioners were Interim County Manager Mike Torres, County Sheriff Mike Le Roux, County Attorney Cathleen Giovannini and Assistant County Attorney Mark Olguin.
Mr. Frazee:
“We do have the assessment team out and we’re using a program called CrisisTrack… and the Survivor Portal is another piece of that software system.
“The Division of Fire Prevention and Control was out here for four or five days, and they were taking pictures of houses, speaking with folks, finding out what kind of damage they had at their houses, along with the County Assessor’s team — they were out there as well.
“You should know that your County has bent over backwards for our needs. They’ve been great to work with from start to finish… we haven’t had one problem while we’ve been here.
“So we’ve collected that data, and we have, I think, 34 homes that have been affected. We have eight with minor damage, and one with major damage. And the one with major damage is out at San Juan River Village.
“So that’s individual assistance.
“As we look at what the future holds, we really don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We’re trying to get our hands around what your community damages are, and we don’t know where we’re going with that.
“We would not… Archuleta County… I say “we” because that’s where I’m stationed. We have another person stationed in La Plata County… so they’re collecting the same data in La Plata.
“We’re completely opposite. In La Plata, they have a lot of homes of homes impacted and very little government infrastructure impacted. Here, we have government infrastructure impacted, and fewer homes than they have in the Vallecito area.
“So we’re really on two different spectrums of federal aid…”
Read Part Three… on Monday…