Colorado Mudslide Update: One Dead, Two Missing, Including Woman Spotted Clinging Onto Tree
A Colorado town experienced their fourth flood this year on Aug. 9, leaving them with a mudslide that killed one man and left two still missing.
A body of a man was found early Saturday on the side of the highway, the Chicago Tribune reported authorities saying. The mudslide occurred in Maintou Springs due to torrential down pouring on mountainsides stripped of vegetation by a wildfire.
"The body was not inside a vehicle and much of the body was buried beneath significant amounts of debris," the sheriff's office reportedly said.
The cause of death has not been determined, but the sheriff's office believes the man was trying to escape the rushing water. Officials are still waiting for autopsy results. Joe Ribeiro, Manitou Springs Police Chief, reportedly said about 40 vehicles that were swept away in the mudslide have been towed out of the debris.
"We've gained no ground on locating those people," Ribeiro reportedly said about the two other missing people.
Authorities said that one missing person is a 24-year-old man who was reported missing after the flood swept through the area. The other person missing was described as a petite woman who was seen clinging to a tree during the incident, Fox News reported Sunday.
The National Weather Service reportedly said the area is vulnerable to flash floods because the scorched soils from wildfires don't absorb as much water as they normally would. The flooding closed U.S. Highway 24, which reportedly stranded drivers and flooding homes. Cars were reportedly up to their wheel wells in water.
