GRANBY, Colo. (KDVR) — Two days after a pre-evacuation order was issued in the town of Granby, much of it remained dark Saturday night.
“It’s like a ghost town. There’s no one here,” Brandi Wilson said, who chose to stay home during the pre-evacuation.
“We trust these guys. If they would have said go, we would have gone,” Wilson told FOX31.
Saturday, some of her neighbors decided it was time to come home.
“We don’t have our snow tires on our vehicles yet,” Granby native Jordan Reynolds said, who left with his family on Thursday.
“With the snow coming, we really didn’t want to get caught on the other side of the mountain and get in a car wreck coming back up if we could come back up. We figured Granby was safe enough right now,” he added.
The shift in weather, along with forecasted snow, has come as a huge relief to those who live in proximity to the East Troublesome Fire.
“We were coming back around 3:30, and there were raindrops on my windshield—not a lot. But there’s moisture in the air, so that’s all we can count on and pray for is moisture,” Reynolds said.
Those who remain under evacuation Saturday night—specifically in the Grand Lake area—won’t have a chance to winterize their home before the snow moves in.
“We’re on a well. What happens is, all the pressure is there. They shut off all the power, and we’ll lose most of our pipes,” Gary Bomgardner said, who lives about five miles outside of Grand Lake.
“We’ll have to redo everything once the power comes on and puts the pressure back. That will be in the cold, or whenever they decide,” Bomgardner added.
Bomgardner says he had very little time to evacuate his home on Wednesday, but believes it is still in tact.
“The fire map shows we’re standing, but that doesn’t mean anything. We go back, and we could have nothing.”
“We really don’t know what’s going on up there,” Grand Lake resident Matthew Moyle said, who was on his way out of town, with plans to stay in Steamboat for the night.
Both Moyle and Bomgardner are bracing for what could be some expensive repairs when they return home—but say they’re just happy to have a home that’s still standing at this point.
“We definitely thought we were driving away and would never see it again. We got what we got, and that’s what’s important. Everything else can be replaced,” Moyle said.
Granby remains on a pre-evacuation order Saturday night.
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