Big Weekend In Colfax County - Floods

[Aloha_Shooter]

Thanks for the additional info. The news about the Scouts being swept away had me confused as any Scout going to Philmont should have been trained time and time again about assessing camping spots for potential of flash floods. It helps hearing just how severe the flooding was. My best guess on the campsite was somewhere near Cimarroncito?

[thvigil11]

The camp was in the north country. In fact, multiple camps were affected. As you can imagine, there is a lot I can't share with you. Both with my current position and the fact that I have great respect for Philmont. My family has been rooted in this region since before the United states was a thing. I am also a 3rd generation Philmont employee. In fact if you were on a horse there in the 90's, chances are you saw me.

The high water mark at the campsite was 16 feet. Their tents were 60 feet from the normal stream side. If you do the math, you'll realize just how much water there was. Way outside the 100 year flood chance. At another camp, a 16x25 foot cabin was lifted and moved 20 feet. It was only 20 because it got wedged in between a large tree and a sunken propane tank. The single occupant gave a very interesting account. The devastation from this event is astounding.

I've also spoke with the staff at the camp with the fatality. Say what you want about the BSA and their recent policies, but those young men and women are prime examples of the caliber of individual that scouting can produce. Those college kid performed some amazing acts of heroism that saved dozens of lives at that and other camps during this flood. Many times I'm pretty pessimistic about the future, but those kids moved me to tears as I listened to their accounts of their actions.

Tomorrow I'll get you some pics of the canyon flooding, can't release the Philmont stuff, but take my word. It was bad beyond belief but the efforts of those kids kept it from being a true horror story. Not only did they pull multiple people from the water, but their warning saved countless others downstream.

[thvigil11]

Here's a couple of shots from the weekend

These guys here are standing on material 14 feet above the normal stream bed. There used to be lotsa guard rails on that section, it spanned both sides of the road for the extent of this picture. You can see the 50' on the left, that's all that survived. The rock in the center is all new. Used to be a deep channel here.



Couldn't move this rock with the loader. Ended up ordering up a dozer, (on the left) still couldn't get it across the highway, so it got rolled along the shoulder for 300 yards to a place where we could push it off.



This little rocks were everywhere. 8 miles worth of road with dozens of them. Good work for that dozer.



The rockslide in this one blocked the river. 4' of running water rushed over the highway on the right. Once we cleared the slide and bermed the river, we had fish flopping on the roadway. The entire riverbed filled in 2+ feet. Had to dredge it to get the riverbed lower than the road. It was kinda weird walking uphill from the highway to the river.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Thanks again for the additional info. It really puts the tragedy into context. I've been getting discouraged by the sheer stupidity of some of the stuff coming down from National in recent months/years (e.g., treating water guns like real firearms, the idea that making a Scout sing or do something to get back gear he left lying around is "unkind", etc.) but it sounds like the staff there at Philmont reacted exactly as we'd want Scouts to.