Colorado Flood Program

Program Summary

Disaster Profile

Rain began falling across the state of Colorado on September 11, 2013 and didn’t relent until September 16th, creating one of the most severe flood surges in US. history. More than 11,000 were evacuated and over 18,000 structures were either damaged or destroyed.

Our Work

With our response to the flooding along Colorado’s Front Range, it became clear from that the offset that we would not only be involved in response to these floods, but would also need to actively participate in long-term recovery efforts.

For this reason, in 2014 we launched Project Colorado within two weeks of the initial rainfall, and received volunteers from across the United States to begin the ‘muck and gut’ cleanup process. Our volunteer teams also cleared debris, helped winterize homes, and operated heavy machinery, with the main objective being: Rebuild to keep walking that road to recovery with these same communities.

We were forced to think outside the box on how to help communities in the mountains now isolated due to washed out roads, thus we sent remote access teams geared with backpacks, a satellite phone and whatever tools they could carry into these mountain towns now which were passable by foot, to continue to help homeowners in need.

Logging over 12,500 volunteer hours in Weld, Larimer and Boulder Counties, we worked along Colorado’s Front Range for two and half months to help communities who experienced a disaster that traversed thousands of square miles.

Our Impact

Our partnership with Habitat for Humanity has helped them expand their traditional two-day/weekend work schedule to a full five day work schedule. We have also been able to provide key assistance to them as they continue to learn about the challenging world of post disaster repair. Together, we completed repairs or rebuild on 13 homes, including one home that was being rebuilt from the foundation up.

Transitioning into the recovery phase, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, where we were based out of Lyons, Co, to share our skills in recovery and rebuilding, as well as assisting in building their capacity to deploy a greater number of volunteers and subsequently help more families.