Primary sources: conejoscounty.colorado.gov, governorsoffice.colorado.gov

Conejos County, Colorado, on Saturday ordered a mandatory evacuation of all of Manassa after flooding along the Conejos River, expanding an earlier warning that had covered only the south side of town^1,2.

San Luis Valley E-911 and Alamosa Regional Communication first issued an Extreme, Immediate Local Area Emergency through IPAWS on Saturday telling residents south of Main Street/Highway 142 to County Road M to leave at once and shelter at the Knights of Columbus hall in La Jara¹.

The county homepage later said all previously pre-evacuated parts of Manassa were in mandatory status, that people should expect to be gone for multiple days, and that small animals and livestock could be taken to La Jara Arena at 17705 U.S. 285². Shelter was listed at Knights of Columbus Hall, 521 Spruce St., La Jara, with updates on the county site and the public health and sheriff Facebook pages². Residents who needed help were told to call nonemergency dispatch at 719-589-5807².

The Conejos County Board of County Commissioners declared a local disaster emergency for the flooding and asked people to avoid flooded roads and work zones².

Gov. Jared Polis had already amended a verbal statewide disaster emergency to include Conejos County after first covering 11 other southwest counties^3,4. His office said about 100 Coloradans were evacuated and many others were stranded by floodwaters, and that the order unlocked state resources including unarmed National Guard members^3,4.

The Colorado Sun, reporting Friday, described floodwaters as high as 7 feet inside houses along the Conejos River and said Polis told the paper about 1,000 families had been evacuated as of Friday morning, with his office later citing another 100 people being moved⁵. Those statewide figures were not broken out for Manassa^3,5.

Alamosa Citizen reported Friday that Horca, Fox Creek and Mogote were still in pre-evacuation, that Colorado 17 remained closed from Antonito over Cumbres and La Manga passes to New Mexico, and that Investigator Laura Amaya said Sheriff Garth Crowther and Undersheriff Blake Crowther were surveying the Conejos River with no reports of missing people or injuries. Amaya said, “Our bridges are getting pretty torn”.

The Colorado Department of Transportation, cited by the governor and Denver7, listed Colorado 17 closed both ways from the New Mexico line to Antonito among other southwest closures^3,4. The Colorado Sun and Alamosa Citizen attributed the storms to remnants of a Pacific tropical system, with the Sun also citing National Weather Service meteorologists on rain on mountain snow and already saturated ground⁵.

What remains unclear from these sources is how many Manassa households left, whether the IPAWS alert’s original expiration still applied after the county-wide order, and when residents may return^1,2.

Sources

1. San Luis Valley E-911Manassa EvacuationOct 24, 10:35 PM
2. Colorado Governor's OfficeGovernor Polis Provides Update on Flooding in Southwest ColoradoOct 24, 2:00 PM
3. Denver7Governor Jared Polis expands flood disaster emergency to 12 southwest Colorado countiesOct 24, 3:18 PM
4. The Colorado SunFloodwaters in southern Colorado surge 7 feet inside homesOct 23, 8:00 PM
5. Alamosa CitizenFlooding hits South Fork, Conejos CountyOct 24, 12:00 PM

Read the original at San Luis Valley E-911 ↗