Colorado flooding: before and after, as seen from space

As I write this on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. from my home near Boulder, Colorado, it is pouring buckets — again. Flood warnings are once again up for a region that has already suffered a 1,000-year rain event, and which is reeling from heart-rending death and destruction.

So far, hundreds of people are unaccounted for. Moreover, four people are confirmed dead, but search and rescue has taken precedence over looking for additional victims. So that grim toll is definitely going up, probably significantly.

My family and I are safe. Niwot is pretty much high and reasonably dry. The only significant impact we’ve experienced is a boil-water directive.

As skies clear and rescue efforts wind down, Colorado is beginning to take stock of the damage wrought by its week of biblical floods. Highways are destroyed, bridges collapsed, and homes ripped from their foundations. And down in Weld County, state agencies, researchers, industry personnel, and environmental activists are trying to figure out what’s happened to the hundreds of oil and gas wells that lie underwater.