Manitou Springs Residents Still Cleaning Up After Flash Flooding
MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Residents of Manitou Springs are still recovering from Monday night's damaging mud invasion.
About 20 homes in the tourist destination at the base of Pikes Peak were flooded. Nearly a dozen had significant damage.
Businesses are trying to get back on track. Business owners have putting out tons of sandbags to prevent another repeat.
"We just wait every day. When the storms come, you just kind of look to the sky," store manager Rosemary Doak said." "The sandbags here are to keep the large debris hopefully from not hitting the windows."
But it can't block her feelings.
"I was a little bit anxious but just tried to stay calm," Doak said.
Fear of another flood has businesses putting out sandbags on a nightly basis.
"The worst part was our lower deck parking lot," Cliff House manager Roland Sardaczuk said. "We had some vehicles that were about half of their wheel well was in the mud and soot."
Sardaczuk said they didn't get any damage at Cliff House and were back in business a day after the flood hit, but they're not taking any chances.
"All our staff has been instructed to keep an eye on the weather patterns. We're not going to go through this again," Sardaczuk said.
"Loss of business would be huge to us," store owner Mel Kent said.
Kent believes the sandbags can only be a temporary situation.
"I think people will start to come together hopefully and try to come up with a long-term plan; something between the private and public sector," Kent said.
"No one should be really fearful about coming down because we're prepared," Doak said.
Business owners say the problem with the sandbags is they rip very easily. Some are meeting with city leaders hoping to come up with more of a permanent solution.
