We live in Eldorado Springs, probably the only rental home in the valley. We're about a mile from 93 about 2 to 3 miles from the town of Eldorado Springs. Thursday around 5pm it got really bad. We either experienced a Flash Flood or a dam broke as the water came rushing down the road and through our yard. We had knee deep water out front and the sump pump would not turn on so the basement crawlspace started filling. I have 3 kids, ages 5, 9, and 18, a wife, and a 96 year old grandmother in the late stages of multi-infarct dementia so needless to say, evacuating was the last thing I wanted to do.

We moved our bug-out bags to the back of the 4 Runner and positioned it along with the Tacoma on high ground ready to go. Lucky for us we're about 2 feet higher than the next property, they were 100% flooded out. By 7pm the water had risen and the water was 13 feet from the front door. My son and I shoveled like mad men, luckily we had a huge pile of gravel left over from a project and we made our stand. I made the kids sleep in their clothes and we readied to go. I stayed up until 4:30am monitoring the situation. The water in the crawlspace was 6" from the top and I still could not get the sump pump to turn on.

By sunlight I had 4" of room in the crawlspace and I started calling every hardware store between here and Thornton looking for a sump pump. I tried to post here but couldn't figure out any of the test, although I could hear the Jeopardy music in my head. Finally at 2pm Home Depot got a shipment of 200 sump pumps and I broke several speed laws getting there. There are about 25 people in front of me and nobody can tell us how many they have left. Then this 20something kid walks over and says "I have a sump pump and hose I purchased yesterday I'll sell" so I reply "Would you be selling the pump for more than you paid yesterday?" and he smiled and said "Yes". Several people on the line looked like they wanted to jump the rope and rip his throat out so I said "You know...in some parts of the country you'd get shot for trying to profit from a disaster" He tries to shrug it off and says "Glad that's not here in Boulder" to which I say "Are you sure?" he then proceeds to run out of the store and I got a round of applause from the crowd and several pats on the back.

The pump is still going.....just a few more inches.