Colorado Avalanches At "Historic" Levels; Slam Onto Highway, Hit Cars: Scary Videos

An avalanche begins to engulf Interstate 70 in Colorado
a few days ago. Nobody was hurt.

UPDATE 3 PM 3/7/19

The avalanche situation in Colorado has definitely worsened since Tuesday.

The National Weather Service in Denver/Boulder has an avalanche warning for most parts of the Colorado Rockies into Friday morning at least.

There's an extreme danger of avalanches in some of Colorado's mountainous regions. The NWS avalanche warning doesn't kid around: "We may see avalanches of historic size. These avalanches will be very destructive and may run to the valley bottoms."

That warning is important, because usually, Rocky Mountain avalanches usually largely stop before reaching valley floors, where most people are. So this goes beyond the usual danger avalanches pose to backcountry skiers and hikers most winters.

The danger is particularly acute today after a series of intense storms dumped up to two feet of dense snow atop lighter, more powdery snow. This makes the snow pack very unstable. Strong winds are blowing across Colorado's mountains today, making things all that much worse.

The Denver Post reports that this is the worst winter in decades for avalanche danger in Colorado.

"'We are seeing avalanches run longer than thehy have in 50 years in some cases,' said Spencer Logan, an avalanche forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. 'We've gotten a lot of snow on the mountains and it is starting to come down,'" says the Denver Post.

Another Colorado avalanche this week. Image via
Twitter from Denver 9News 

The Avalanche Center, known as CAIC, says there have been about 2,000 avalanches in Colorado this winter. In an average year, there are about 3,000 avalanches, but most of those occur in the spring when the snow is starting to melt.

That means when the current avalanche warning expires Friday, the risk is far from over. I'm sure there will be plenty more such warnings in Colorado during the coming weeks. Already six people have died in Colorado slides this winter.

Interstate 70 through the Colorado mountains is closed again today. In my earlier post, as you will see below under "Previous Discussion," the highway closed Sunday when avalanches struck vehicles on the road.  Interstate 70 closed again Tuesday while officials intentionally set of avalanches to help prevent larger more destructive ones from launching on their own.

But today, two giant avalanches near Vail and Copper Mountain closed Interstate 70 again today. The avalanche near Copper Mountain ruptured a gas line. The one near Vail hit a truck, but the driver was not injured and a tow truck pulled the vehicle out.

Parts of State Highways 91 and 24 were also closed because of avalanches or worries about them.

Some ski areas, like Breckenridge, closed upper mountains to skiers so that they will stay safe.

Colorado isn't the only place in trouble with avalanches. A snowmobile rider was killed Monday by an avalanche in Wyoming. The National Avalanche Center is showing lesser, but still considerable avalanche risks in parts of Utah, Idaho and California.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION 3/5/19

Several avalanches roared down from the mountains and onto Interstate 70 near Copper Mountain, Colorado in the past week.

At least two hit several cars along the highway, but spoiler alert: Nobody was hurt. Videos are below.

At least one pickup truck was pushed off the road, and several motorists had to crawl out of sunroofs or car windows to escape once the avalanches subsided.  Many of these motorists then had to spend hours digging out their cars to continue on their way.

Although avalanches in the mountains are fairly common, ones that impact highways are not. Colorado highway officials said these were the first avalanches to hit a major Colorado highway since 1983.

The Colorado Rockies have been hit by unusually heavy snowstorms in recent weeks, leading to the increased avalanches.

Colorado isn't the only state dealing with avalanches crashing down onto highways. In Idaho, a snow slide buried a one quarter mile long part of Route 21 between Lowman and Stanley beneath up to 40 feet of snow.  Nobody was hurt there, either.

A couple of dramatic videos from dash cams emerged from the Colorado avalanches. Scary!

Here's the first one:



Here's another, more expansive view from a motorist who avoided getting directly hit:

Houston's Nightmare: As Bad As Katrina

Overnight, the Houston metro area went beyond the worst case scenario.

Dawn in Houston Sunday revealed a city reeling
from catastrophic, historic flooding. 

We knew catastrophic flooding was coming to eastern Texas due to stalled ex-Hurricane Harvey.

What's happening in Houston now is the beyond description.   

A feeder band of intense rains on the east flank of Harvey has been pushing into the Houston area since late Saturday afternoon and shows no signs of stopping. 

Extreme flooding is happening in and around Houston. 

I'll cherry pick some facts to give you just a partial illustration: 

-- Emergency responders and the National Weather Service office in Houston are warning people not to go into their attics to escape floodwaters. They'll be trapped and drown there, just as many Katrina victims were in 2005 New Orleans. 

People should head for their roofs instead. (Where of course people will be subject to the torrential rain, lightning and possible tornadoes.)

-- Water is entering the second floors of numerous homes in the Houston metro area.

-- 911 is so overwhelmed that people are not getting through to ask for help. Houston police are asking people to call 911 only if their life is in immediate danger.  Anyone trapped in their house but there's only several inches to a foot of of water inside should ride it out and not call 911.

--- There have been well over 1,000 water rescues so far. The number of reported deaths around Houston as of early this morning is either three or five, depending upon who you ask, but that toll will surely rise exponentially.

I-610 in Houston this morning. 

---Since people can't get through to 911, they're taking to Twitter to plead for help. Television station KHOU, which is still on the air despite the fact it is taking on water, reported Tweets like the following: 

"I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up. Please send help. 11115 Sageview, Houston, Tx. 911 is not responding!!!!!"

 (The woman and her children were later rescued.)

Another Tweet:

"@houstonpolice my sister lives on sulphur 77034. She is on her roof with 3 kids please send help!!!!"

Houston police tweeted back to the man that they would tell dispatch about the situation. 

Personnel at KHOU early this morning were moving into a makeshift broadcast studio in a conference room on the second floor of their building since the studio on the main floor was flooding. 

Coast Guard helicopters have been called in to rescue people trapped in flooded urban areas.

The torrential rain in Houston showed no sign of stopping as of 8 a.m. EDT. Forecasts called for the feeder band to continue dumping downpours on Houston all day. 

Several of the storms yesterday also produced tornadoes. Some of Houston's storms today could easily do the same.  

One to two feet of rain fell on the Houston metro area overnight, and they could get another one to two feet during the day today.

Some are already saying this could become the most catastrophic flood in United States history, or at least close to it. 

This is as bad as it can possibly get, folks.