Colorado Church Helps After Colorado Flooding

Torrential floods in Colorado displaced many people from their homes last week and affected a number of members of The Journey Christian Reformed Church in Longmont, Colo.

The pastor of The Journey, Richard Ebbers, and his family were under the mandatory evacuation.

“It was a mess,” Ebbers said. “It’s been 10 days and I’m still in shock. I’m fortunate—this was a 100-year floodplain. They did a flood control project over the last two years a block from our house and it saved our house. The river split into another branch; it just swept north into a field and then came and created a whole new branch from the river that flooded out five neighborhoods. It was unbelievable.”

Members of The Journey helped out at the evacuation center that was set up for the residents of Longmont who were evacuated.

“The initial evacuation center had to be evacuated; they had to set up another center,” Ebbers said. “We were there at the time because I’m a police chaplain and I asked them if they needed any volunteers at that evacuation center.”

After the storm, teams went out to help church members and the larger community.

“In the aftermath I helped some families from our church who lived in a neighborhood that was heavily affected,” Ebbers said. “We fanned out in groups to clog out people’s basements—anywhere from one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half feet of water.” Ebbers said people were putting in 12-hours days volunteering.