<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0EUu43_1Godgo7700" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0EUu43_1Godgo7700" width="1280" height="765" ><figcaption>In the village of Guadalupe along the Conejos River, Sally Vasquez's home is sitll surrounded by ankle-deep water from recent flooding. Credit: The Citizen</figcaption></figure>Sally Vasquez was sitting on the porch of her home in the village of Guadalupe Thursday when U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd came through to see for themselves the damage the fall El Niño storms have caused in Conejos County and other areas of the San Luis Valley.Vasquez voted for Hickenlooper in Tuesday’s midterm election, she said. Now she was looking for him and Bennet in the entourage of federal staff and a crowd of county officials that descended onto the village to grasp the extent of the flood damage.“It’s hard. I’ve had a lot of anxiety,” said Vasquez, who sat with her daughter, Felice, and granddaughter, Courtney. Their porch was surrounded by ankle-deep water, which had receded greatly from days earlier when water gushed through the 180-year-old community of 60 or so residents.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4MmYy8_1Godgo7700" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4MmYy8_1Godgo7700" width="1024" height="691" ><figcaption>Sally Vasquez with her daughter, Felice, and granddaughter, Courtney. Credit: The Citizen</figcaption></figure>Fortunately, Guadalupe’s water tank wasn’t breached by the flood waters and the septic system for Vasquez’s home is still functioning. That isn’t the case for others in Guadalupe and other unincorporated areas of Conejos County, Rio Grande County and other parts of the San Luis Valley that have been impacted.Contaminated private water wells, sewage back-ups, inaccessible and flooded roads that have trapped residents in the communities along the Conejos River, are all problems county commissioners and emergency response managers are wrestling with and the type of detailed information the federal delegation was looking to gain from their visit.“Hopefully, we’re going to get another disaster declaration here very soon from the White House,” Hurd said.The question residents like Vasquez and others have is whether any of the federal money will help them with the damage to their private homes. Nobody has flood insurance on their houses and so there is no insurance claim they can make.“The residential people are afraid that they’re going to get left out,” said Conejos County Commissioner Delfino Garcia.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2L5yGR_1Godgo7700" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2L5yGR_1Godgo7700" width="1024" height="738" ><figcaption>Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Jeff Hurd meet with local emergency managers on Thursday in Guadalupe. Credit: The Citizen</figcaption></figure>Hickenlooper wasted no time in saying he can do for residents like Vasquez.“I can guarantee what I can do. I can go back to the appropriators of the United States Senate and say, ‘I was there. I was there in Guadalupe. I was there in Conejos County. I saw what this damage was and these people don’t have enough to paint their walls, let alone have flood insurance,” he said. “The U.S. government needs to stand up for them.”In a Nov. 4 letter to President Donald Trump, Hickenlooper called for an expedited Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for Southwestern Colorado and the San Luis Valley to get federal money coming to pay for flood damages.Preliminary assessments for Archuleta and Rio Grande Counties have identified approximately $10.6 million in damage to local roads, bridges and culverts; $2.44 million in damage to public utilities; and $8.59 million in damage to parks and recreation facilities, according to local officials.The Federal Highway Administration approved $6.5 million to help with emergency repairs on US Highway 160, US 550 and Colorado Highway 151.Hickenlooper, Bennet and Hurd left Guadalupe for a drive to South Fork to meet with the Rio Grande County incident command team that has been on the front lines of the storms going on three weeks.The first-hand look at the damage and hearing from first responders is important to grasp the amount of damage and the role the federal government needs to play in the recovery, Bennet said.“If you’re not actually here, it’s impossible to understand it,” he said. “It’s one thing to conceptually imagine what it looks like to have a flood that came a hundred years ago but hasn’t been seen since. When you see it in person, you realize just how devastating it is.”</div></body>

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Sally Vasquez was sitting on the porch of her home in the village of Guadalupe Thursday when U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd came through to see for themselves the damage the fall El Niño storms have caused in Conejos County and other areas of the San Luis Valley.

A first-hand look at flood damage

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Sally Vasquez was sitting on the porch of her home in the village of Guadalupe Thursday when U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. 

A first-hand look at flood damage

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