DENVER – Gov. John Hickenlooper made a plea for state unity Thursday as he announced the first steps in an “epic” recovery from floods that poured across Northeast Colorado last week.
“We are all affected by this, and we’re all going to feel those far-reaching effects. In addition to the lives lost and the hundreds of people injured, the damage to Colorado roads, to bridges, to our houses, to our agriculture is daunting,” Hickenlooper said.
He appointed a chief recovery officer to coordinate rebuilding efforts among the various state, local and federal entities. Jerre Stead, chairman of the supply-chain management company IHS Inc., will donate his time and his staff’s time to run the recovery effort.
Stead will not have the authority to give orders to Hickenlooper’s Cabinet appointees, but the governor thinks he will serve a useful purpose in helping the state’s different agencies figure out how to prioritize their work and cooperate.
The floods inflicted the most damage of any natural disaster in state history, Hickenlooper said. Initial damage assessments make clear just how difficult the recovery will be. The Colorado Department of Transportation says that:
200 miles of roads and more than 50 bridges are destroyed.
85 percent of bridges and roads in Big Thompson Canyon west of Loveland are a total loss.
Bridges are washed out as far as 90 miles away from the mountains on the Eastern Plains.
Parts of 16 highways remain closed.
Additionally, nearly 2,000 private homes were destroyed.
CDOT is putting up $100 million, along with $35 million from the federal government, to get started on road and bridge repair. Monetary damage estimates are not available yet, but they are likely to be many times the $135 million already committed.
Hickenlooper did not say how the state will pay for the repairs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is here, under a disaster declaration by President Barack Obama, but FEMA typically requires state and local governments to pay for about a quarter of the recovery cost.
Colorado usually looks to local governments to pay their share of a disaster’s cost, but the floods were so widespread that the state government might pay for part of the local costs, Hickenlooper said.
He was noncommittal about asking Congress for a relief bill, similar to the one it passed when Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast last year.
“We’ll see where we come out, but that’s certainly a very interesting possibility,” Hickenlooper said.
State highway crews and the Colorado National Guard are racing against the calendar as they try to repair routes into Front Range canyons, said CDOT Executive Director Don Hunt.
“Our goal remains to re-establish those routes before the onset of the winter,” Hunt said. “But to be honest with you, as we get into those corridors and figure out what’s there, we may achieve that or not.”
jhanel@durangoherald.com
