Douglas County is still cleaning
up from the F1 tornado that
hit Highlands Ranch last week.
Today they started to assess the damage
there as another storm rolled through.
You're looking live on I-25
right now where you see a lot
of mud on the highway there.
That was because that area
was flooded not too long ago.
That again is near W 23rd.
You know that area of the
highways right near downtown.
So we're taking a look at that.
We're trying to get an answer about a
car that was stalled there for a little
while to see why that car was s.
But it's just an unbelievable s.
1.81 inches of rain that fell ie
area of town within an hour that just
caused a lot of streets to floo.
We have been tracking this absoe
mess on Interstate 25 and 20th .
which we just showed you.
And now take a look at this. Ye,
so much water in the street right now.
That's the sewer at 53rd and Sheridan.
It could not handle it all,
just became a geyser right there
in the middle of the roadway.
Here's what happened near that
part of I-25 when we were lookig
at earlier and Coors Field,
the river of water just rushing
down the street as the surroundg
land just covered in hail.
There. Let
me show you this video from Sloan's Lake.
It shows just how much rain
was coming down all at once.
It came quick and fast and
Danielle has been tracking it a.
Yeah, it has been an active and
busy afternoon for a lot of fol,
of course, the storm.
System dropping into the
metro area right there,
about 3-4 o'clock people trying
to get out of work and it has
created just a mess on the road.
Mother Nature delivering all
of the ingredients for severe
thunderstorms for us with a huge hail,
strong winds, heavy drenching r,
flash flooding and we can't roll out.
We might see a tornado here or
there throughout the evening.
In fact, the Denver area
under a tornado watch,
we're going to be looking at
that continuing until about 9:0.
O'clock tonight,
everywhere in that orange box.
Under the tornado watch for now,
we have just this one severe cel
that has been parked across the
city and now is moving out towad
DIA and parts of eastern Colora.
A lot of lightning out there ane
still have the severe thunderstm
warning going until 5:15.
Radar indicating potentially hal
about two inches in diameter.
That's like the size of a line t
definitely can do some damage out there.
And of course,
the lightning not helping folks out at DIA.
They are at a ground stop.
No one can come in.
No one can come out. It's.
Just been a mess.
Also on the West side of town
like Steve was saying.
close to two inches of rainfall
up in the Highlands.
No wonder they're under a flash
flood warning until about 6:00.
O'clock tonight parts of Denverd
Jefferson counties because so mh
water came in with these storms.
Back to that severe cell that
is positioned out toward DIA and
we can slice it in half and get
a good idea of what's happening
within that powerful cell.
And you can see how tall it is,
indicating it is fierce.
It still has a lot of energy and
a lot of momentum to continue
its March off to the northeast.
The top of those clouds easily
about 40,000 feet.
We've been dealing with hail to coming down.
The threat will remain and thiss
just kind of a look at our hail tracker,
what we have seen thus far,
we can kind of line it up.
Up right there on I-70,
many spots reporting easily over
2 inches in diameter, of course,
parts of downtown Park Hill loog
at some hail and then on the Wet
side of town to near Lakewood
about an inch or so in diameter.
This pretty much is what we
were anticipating today with the
threat for seeing tornadoes,
hail being the biggest threat,
but strong gusty winds and floog
also going to be an issue for f.
We've already seen that happenig
and once again we could be look.
At that, for the next couple of hours,
meteorologist Corey Reppenhagen.
He has been our eyes and ears oe
ground driving around within this storm.
And Corey,
it looks like you're at E 470.
You're just South of the airpor,
kind of in the heart of it looks like
no hail though, at least that I can see.
Yeah, not at the moment.
The hail is kind of been in and out as
we've made our way down E 470 and we've
kind of encountered a bit of a traffic
snafu down here at the bottom of E 470.
It's right about where you get o
the I-70 interchange and we cant
really see the traffic has been
stopped here for a few minutes.
We can't really see what the issue is,
but we have seen several thingst
could cause problems like this and mainly
related to the amount of water t
has just been coming out of this storm over.
Here by Denver International Airport.
Very similar to the amount of r,
almost, not quite the 1.83 inches that
we saw closer to the downtown a,
but we have seen some heavy
rain out here with the pooling
water in spots we've seen it.
3 or 4 inches deep.
So that's enough to cause a
hydroplaning issue at almost any speed.
So we don't know if that's may
have been the the the case up h.
And we've also seen people just
hiding underneath the overpasses
with their vehicles.
And one of the big problems with that
of course is you you mentioned .
Well Katie said that she saw some of that
hail fog and so when hail sits on the
road and there is warmer air above it,
you kind of get this fog that.
Develops and you cannot see what
is happening underneath those
overpasses when that happens.
So the traffic is now moving no.
So we're going to get back on te
road and continue to chase this
severe warn storm for you guys.
Lots of demand
for a from people on Twitter sag
I've seen people park under overpasses,
please don't do that because when you do
that you might not see other traffic,
might not see you and that can
cause an even bigger problem.
So, Corey, Robin Hagen.
Stay safe out there.
Hope that traffic clears up soo.
Yeah, it's so dangerous.
We want to check in with our Katie Eastman,
who actually had to pull off one
side but not under an overpass.
She pulled off on a frontage road off of
I-70 E and now you are on the move again.
We like to see that, Katie.
We are on the move again.
Now we're trying to head back ad
honestly I think the fronted frontage Rd.
For now heading back West is a little
faster because I think Corey anI
are might be very close to each other.
We're seeing that traffic too jt
because of people hiding under e
overpasses and some some people
we've seen look like they have e
blown out windows and so now the
staying on that overpass under r
the overpass just to try to prot
themselves from probably getting wet.
Luckily I'm going to show you
what's in front of us. No more .
It is sunny out, but the hail is still.
Luckily it's It's melting so quickly though,
so the roads seem to. It's fast.
Going here to a camera for me to switch to.
Oh Yep, to show the traffic out there.
It's honestly moving.
Hopefully things will just get k
to normal around here real quick
and we'll be all good.
What? That cell service is pretty darn
good for where Katie Eastman is right now.
Yeah. Katie, thank you.
We appreciate it.
Want to get to Keeley Chalmers,
who has made her way to Lodo,
where we saw a ton of flooding,
including some flooding on
I-25 in the area 23rd there.
Keeley, what are you
seeing in Lodo right now?
Well, we're we're seeing the
results of that flooding on I-2.
We're actually sitting in
what is almost a parking lot.
Traffic is backed up barely
moving through Lotto,
I think for a couple reasons.
One, the baseball game.
So that's actually good news.
It's going on, but also because of the
the issues with the flooding on the road.
So I want to show you,
I think this we're on Blake St.
is that correct?
Yeah, we're on Blake St.
where you can see alongside the
roads what looks like snow that.
Hail.
In fact, we're seeing people throwing nuts.
No balls,
hail balls down here in Lodo asy
head around and into the baseball game.
So again,
no flooding where we are,
just traffic is a nightmare here
in downtown began because of the
flooding on the interstates and
some of the surrounding roads.
So my advice to you if you're heading
anywhere and avoid this area and
your best bet is just stay put,
I'll send it back to you.
That sounds a lot better than
sticking around in that traffic.
Although I saw a pedal pub just
to the left of the screen there.
I hope that that wasn't
going during all this.
That would have been a nightmar.
So true. So true. Yeah.
All right, Heely Shelters,
appreciate it.
Want to get you some pictures n.
Oh my goodness.
This appears to be on I-25.
This is the flooding that we hae
been talking about, So dangerou.
We've seen cars stalled and
now this one appears to be
completely submerged underwater.
I'm not sure if this is the cars
owner or someone trying to bust out a
window in the back that
looks like first responders.
That's kind of tools that they have there.
We hope that there's no one
inside that car right now,
but we're watching as they try
to kind of get that car moving
and break that back window ther.
To get toward it, it looks like this.
Can we get a clarification on where this is?
I don't know if this is on the highway
or if this is this is at 38th and Inca.
Right now, so it's near I-25.
You imagine all that water thate
saw on I-25 spilling over onto e
of the roads all around there ad
what looks like first responders
trying to do some work on a car there.
Again, we are hopeful that no oe
is in that car.
We haven't gotten any information about
what's going on with that vehic.
Here's a look at that flooding
I was talking about on I-25.
And some stall what appear to
be stalled vehicles there.
Keep in mind,
this part of town got almost
two inches of rain in an hour,
enough that the flood system,
the flood prevention system in n
is going to struggle with that.
I don't know if you've been on
a walk around town lately.
You've seen that all the creeksd
rivers are high because of all e
water that we've had in town right now.
Well, all those creeks and rivers exist.
Because they are supposed to prt
things like this from happening.
They're supposed to prevent
flooding from roadways.
But when they become overwhelmed
the ground is continues to be saturated,
you start to see flooding just like this.
The good news is we've seen a lf
those waters on I-25 start to recede.
But we did see some mud on the roadway there.
It looked like C dot was startig
to clean some of that up.
Yep, we want to show you.
The Eastern Plains had a night of bad storms.
This was overnight,
this tornado that hit Logan
County in northeast Colorado.
First touchdown near the town of Kimball
in Nebraska and then it worked its way.
SE across the state line or Cory
Reppenhagen captured this shot.
Now near the town of Pete's.
We know there's a lot of damage
in Highlands Ranch after that
EF1 tornado swept through town,
but officials don't know how many homes
or the total cost to repair them all yet.
So today Douglas County deputies
and people from the Office of
Emergency Management there,
they started going door to door
to try to get that estimate.
They needed to know the extent of the
damage in order to be eligible a
presidential disaster declarati.
Once they gather that informati,
they'll send it to the state.
State will then send it to FEMA.
We want to help our citizens
as much as possible.
That declaration would open whas
called a public assistance gran,
and that would help all
of our public facilities.
Investors are only looking
at damage to people's homes.
Douglas County says outside of homes,
they believe Highlands Ranch
lost 16,000 trees in this.
When I get over to meteorologist
Chris Bianchi, who has been watg
this wild weather that rolled
through this afternoon, Chris,
that number at the top is astounding.
Yeah, that's the one that stands out.
And Steve, you mentioned it.
These totals aren't coming on tf
what's been such an exceptionally wet run
for us here along the Front Range, so.
The water and the rainfall that we're getting
here today and especially when you get it
in such a short order like what we had,
unfortunately that's what's leading to
a lot of those scenes that you're seeing
in Denver right now. But Lakewo,
this will be on the east side of Lakewood,
right near the Denver and Lakewood line.
This is where we picked up about
two inches worth of rainfall.
Almost all of that came within
about a one hour span.
Commerce City a little over
an inch worth of rainfall.
The totals are pretty impressiv.
In and of themselves.
But we've seen an inch,
even 2 inches worth of rainfall this month,
this spring.
And it hasn't produced these kinds of flood
issues like what we've been talking about.
But that 1.1 inches worth of rainfall
we've seen that came in one hour
there on the east side of Lakew.
So often it's the rainfall rate,
can the ground catch up and absb
enough of that water to prevent flooding?
So that's one of those things
that we lookout for.
But of course,
this comes on top of the amountf
rainfall we've had so far this .
Almost 5 1/2 inches worth of rainfall
so far this June before the storm system
already making it our wettest June on record.
That does not include the rainfall today.
So again, the ground Steve was
talking about a second ago,
the creeks, the rivers, the str,
anything that's built here to
prevent this from happening,
this sort of flooding from happening,
it's overwhelmed at this point.
The good news is these showers l
continue to push the way off to the east.
Maybe another little storm out
on the West side of town.
We'll be right back.