Once again, I'm feeling sad for our community. The rains came yesterday. Boy, did the rains ever come yesterday.
Our little friendly neighbor town of Manitou Springs was flooded and is a total shambles today. Manitou is just "downstream" from the Waldo Canyon burn scar. There is little to no vegetation on the burn scar, so nothing to slow the waters. In addition to that, the ground is mostly ash, and hydrophobic - incapable of absorbing water.
When it rains, it floods. Flash floods of thick black muddy water.
We've already had two or three bad flood days this summer, but yesterday was the worst. Homes were washed off of their foundations, cars were swept away like leaves in a stream.
One confirmed death, three missing people so far.
Manitou Springs is just a little hippie town that gets most of its income from tourism. There are quaint little shops and cafes to relax in, a couple of small parks for frolicking, a fun outdoor arcade. It is the home of the cog railway that takes visitors to the top of Pikes Peak, and it's also home to The Incline.
The residents of Manitou Springs are of the friendliest I've ever met. Seriously, they are so laid back and easy going and hospitable. It really is known for being home to hippies, it was recently voted one of the top hippie towns in the country.
But they aren't smelly panhandling hippies. Just friendly don't-sweat-the-small-stuff hippies in tie dye and dreadlocks, always up for a fun time.
As its name suggests, it sports many natural mineral springs, each spring has a structure built around it so that people can learn a little about it and sample the water as it spouts fresh. I accompanied both Chaco and Wolfgang as their middle school classes did the annual field trips to Manitou, to take in the culture and learn about the springs. To make it "sciencey", we analyzed the water characteristics from each spring. Meego's class is scheduled for this year, and I plan to go again.
This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "fresh" and I did this ink drawing of the current structure surrounding the Shoshone Spring.
In my opinion, the water tastes awful.
But I still love Manitou.
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13 comments:
Sorry to hear that you guys are getting the short end of the weather stick this year. Drout, fires, floods. Seems almost apocalyptic. Seems like someone opened up some ancient artifact or created some Biblical curse. Beautiful town with some really unique character. I home that the folks in Manitou Springs are able to dry out and recover quickly.
I loved our visit to Manitou! How sad that this has happened to such a great little town! Perhaps I need to go back and leave a little more of my income there...
We taste-tested the water from the springs while we were there. Nobody went back for seconds. Turns out the bottled water the lady on the corner was selling tastes a little better.
That's really sad, I hope there is help available...
Maybe that's it, an ancient curse! Well, things could certainly be worse, but it's a sad thing to happen to such a sweet and fun place.
Revenues are down a bit! Some people complain about having to pay to park in Manitou, but if that money went to building a dam...
I think each spring has its own unique yucky taste. Kinda like pouring water into a jar of old coins, letting it sit for a month or so, then taking a swig.
There's lots of clean up going on, a lot of it from volunteers. I'm interested to know what mitigation plans are in the works. That burn scar's not going away anytime soon.
Yea, what's next? Locust?
Both sadness and happiness in this post. I hope everyone will persevere and get back to climbing the Incline in Marilyn Monroe attire.
Meant to add that if your current tutoring talent and future pursuits don't work out, you can always become an architect based on your drawing here and math brain.
Pfft, well thanks, Anita. For now, I'd just like to get the back yard looking presentable.
And the bottle of bubbly, for the top!
Oh, that's awful. I'm so sorry for the residents of Manitou Springs! I hope the surrounding communities will rally together and help them get back in order again.
Oh, what a drag for Manitou Springs. So many floods this year! I come from a famous hippie town. I like to say that even the red-necks there are different and more relaxed than your average red-necks. I wish them a successful clean-up. Does the water at the springs smell like eggs and taste like, sulpherized eggs? The water at our springs does, but they say it's good for you.
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