LYONS, Colo. – As water recedes and flows east onto the Colorado plains – revealing toppled homes, buckled highways and fields of tangled debris – rescuers are shifting their focus from emergency airlifts to trying to find the hundreds of people still unaccounted for after last week’s devastating flooding.
Federal and state emergency officials, taking advantage of sunny skies, said more than 3,000 people have been evacuated by air and ground, but calls for those emergency rescues have decreased.
READ MORE: Rain hampers rescuers efforts to expand searches for people cut off by Colorado flooding
“They’ve kind of transitioned from that initial response to going into more of a grid search,” Colorado National Guard Lt. Skye Robinson said.
In one of those searches Tuesday, Sgt. 1st Class Keith Bart and Staff Sgt. Jose Pantoja leaned out the window of a Blackhawk helicopter, giving the thumbs-up sign to people on the ground while flying outside of hard-hit Jamestown.
Watch: Colorado flood recovery focusing on hard-hit agricultural areas
Most waved back and continued shovelling debris. But then Bart spotted two women waving red scarves, and the helicopter descended.
Pantoja attached his harness to the helicopter’s winch and was lowered to the ground. He clipped the women in, and they laughed as they were hoisted into the Blackhawk.
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After dropping off the women at the Boulder airport, the Blackhawk was back in the air less than a minute later to resume the search.
The state’s latest count has dropped to about 580 people missing, and the number continues to decrease as the stranded get in touch with families.
One of the missing is Gerald Boland, a retired math teacher and basketball coach who lives in the damaged town of Lyons. Boland’s neighbours, all of whom defied a mandatory evacuation order, said Boland took his wife to safety Thursday then tried to return home.
Two search teams went looking for him Monday.
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“He was very sensible. I find it amazing that he would do something that would put himself in harm’s way,” said neighbour Mike Lennard. “But you just never know under these circumstances.”
State officials reported six flood-related deaths, plus two women missing and presumed dead. The number was expected to increase. It could take weeks or even months to search through flooded areas looking for bodies.
With the airlifts tapering, state and local transportation officials are tallying the washed-out roads, collapsed bridges and twisted railroad lines. The rebuilding effort will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take months, if not years.
Initial assessments have begun trickling in, but many areas remain inaccessible and the continuing emergency prevents a thorough understanding of the devastation’s scope.
Northern Colorado’s broad agricultural expanses are especially affected, with more than 400 lane-miles (640 kilometres0 of state highway and more than 30 bridges destroyed or impassable.
State officials have put initial estimates at more than 19,000 homes damaged or destroyed throughout the flooded areas.
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Neary reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Associated Press writer Matt Volz in Denver contributed to this report.
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