GREELEY, Colo. — An afternoon storm dumped more than 4 inches of rain on parts of Greeley in just one hour, causing localized flooding and some damage to homes and businesses.
“I always liked living by the beach but not like this,” Greeley resident Darin Infante told FOX31.
Infante’s garden-level apartment flooded in Thursday’s storm.
“I noticed rain was starting to come through the back window where my bedroom was at, so I started using the Shop-Vac to get ahead of it. But then when I turned around and I looked at the front door all this water is just rushing in through both of the doors,” Infante said.
He said that within minutes, the water in his apartment was knee-deep.
“Everything started floating. My bed is floating in the middle of a lake,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
According to Infante, Greeley Fire had to break open his door to get him out of the unit. They also had to rescue his next-door neighbor.
“It was actually pretty scary. I didn’t think it was that serious. But once I saw the fireman, I was like, OK, this is really happening,” Infante said.
Several blocks aways, Greeley city trucks blocked off 11th Avenue because of flooding. A few vehicles were submerged up to their bumpers.
“The whole thing was a river. It just kept — the sidewalks were submerged. Everything was submerged. There was no way to stop it,” Infante said.
“Oh, it was terrible. Water was — it was just pouring down,” Greeley resident Jesse Huerta said. “You couldn’t even see the pavement. It was covered in water.”
While Huerta’s house and vehicle were undamaged, he is one of many in Greeley dealing with mud and debris on his property that washed up in the floodwaters.
“With all that water, a lot of bark from the neighbors just washed up into my rocks here, and I’m trying to clean it up now,” Huerta said.
City workers worked to clear debris from the sewer drains. Within three hours, most of the water had receded and the roads were reopened.