Residents flee to higher ground as record monthly rainfall prompts flash floods and inundates towns and cities
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| Three vehicles rest in floodwater after a crash near a washed away road at Dillon, Colorado. No one was seriously injured. Photograph: Andy Cross/AP
Flooding that left at least three people dead in Colorado worsened overnight as record rains pounded the state, forcing thousands more residents to flee to higher ground, officials said.
The unusual late-summer downpours drenched Colorado's biggest urban areas, stretching 130 miles along the eastern slopes of the Rockies from Fort Collins near the Wyoming border south through Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs.
In Boulder, the rainfall record for September set in 1940 was shattered, officials said, unleashing floodwaters in Boulder Canyon above the city that triggered the evacuation of 4,000 residents on Thursday.
"There's so much water coming out of the canyon, it has to go somewhere, and unfortunately it's coming into the city," said the Boulder office of emergency management.
Boulder Creek, which runs through the city, burst its banks and flooded adjacent car parks and streets. Other towns nestled along the Front Range of the Rockies north of Denver were also hit.
Barack Obama approved a federal disaster assistance request. National Guard troops were dispatched to the remote town of Lyons, north of Boulder, which was virtually cut off from surrounding areas.
A dozen major roads in north-eastern Colorado remained shut with significant damage from flooding, mudslides, rockfalls and other debris, the Colorado department of transportation said.
Heavy summer rains are not unusual for Colorado, but the intensity and duration of the downpour that began on Monday night was unprecedented.
The National Weather Service said at least 12.3 inches (31 cms) of rain had fallen on Boulder since 1 September, more than double the 63-year-old monthly record.
One body was found in a collapsed building near Jamestown, an evacuated enclave north of Boulder. A couple were swept away in floodwaters after stopping their car north-west of the city. The man's body was recovered but the woman was missing and feared dead.
The body of a third confirmed fatality, a man, was found by police on flood-watch patrols in Colorado Springs, about 100 miles south, officials said.
Nearly 150 people were killed near Boulder in 1976 by a flash flood along the Big Thompson Canyon.
Where is Colorado?
It is located in USA.
Facts of Colorado.
DONE BY: Brayden Ng Zheng Lin 7 Kappa
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