Rescues and devastation: What it looked like when southwestern Colorado began flooding

Severe flooding across southwestern Colorado has stranded residents, swept away roads and forced emergency crews into round-the-clock rescue missions, as communities begin confronting damage that could take months to repair.

Behind the widespread destruction are stories of narrow escapes, neighbors helping neighbors and residents grappling with what the floodwaters left behind.

Here are three of their stories. 

Inside the Colorado National Guard’s aerial mission to rescue 28 people, 9 dogs,  2 cats 

Colorado Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua Holm rarely gets to learn what happens to the people he rescues from disasters.

After spotting stranded residents from the air, helping guide a helicopter into position and hoisting them to safety, he typically hands them off to emergency responders and never sees them again.

But after helping rescue a family stranded on a backcountry road cut off by severe flooding near Pagosa Springs, Holm had an unexpected reunion. Later that day, while shopping for groceries in town, he ran into the very family his crew had brought to safety.

“So when that happens, that is pretty rewarding because it’s unique,” Holm, who was deployed from the Denver area, told The Colorado Sun after five days on the mission.

It’s part of the job for members of the Colorado National Guard, who are called into communities facing disasters to provide lifesaving support, then pack up and leave once their work is done. 

As of Tuesday morning, the Colorado National Guard’s aviation crews have rescued 28 people, nine dogs and two cats during 14 missions across southwestern Colorado, where severe flooding has washed out roads, damaged homes and left some residents without water and essential supplies.

Holm said he and his crew spent 23.3 hours in the air. 

Several Pagosa-based National Guard crews have been working around the clock alongside the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office to reach people, both on the ground and from the air.

Using two military helicopters, crews first surveyed the region to assess the damage and identify where help was needed. They then flew lower over roads and neighborhoods, searching for stranded residents waving their arms to signal for help.

One of the helicopters, which the Colorado National Guard has used for search and rescue operations since 2021, can maneuver into tight spaces that ground vehicles and larger helicopters cannot reach, Holm said. It can also hoist people as high as 275 feet off the ground, carry multiple patients and provide pilots with a broad view of the terrain below.

The Colorado National Guard received orders to activate at 9 p.m. Friday. After a late night of packing, a task force assembled and arrived in Pagosa Springs on Saturday morning.

Holm, who joined the National Guard at 17, transferred to the Colorado National Guard in 2017 and joined the Army’s High-Altitude Aviation Training Site near Eagle. He later attended flight school and now serves as a pilot and works in aircraft maintenance.

“This is very, very fulfilling for me to be able to use a skill set that I’ve always desired to develop and I can return those skills back to the community by utilizing these helicopters to do exactly what they’re designed to do,” he said.

With a bird’s-eye view, Holm could see the extent of the destruction left by the flooding.

“It looks like a long-term impact just from the level of devastation that I was seeing from the air,” he said.

But he also witnessed neighbors helping one another. During one of his first missions near Pagosa Springs, Holm watched as a woman helped her older neighbor make her way across muddy, waterlogged ground to reach a helicopter waiting to carry her to safety.

For Holm, that spirit of neighbors helping neighbors is at the heart of the National Guard’s mission.

“As Colorado Guardsmen, at the end of the day, we are your neighbors, too,” he said. “This is what we train to do every day, and I know each and every one of my brothers and sisters in arms are happy to use our skill sets to help the very people that we live next to.”

A beloved RV campground now submerged

Kathy and Mike Smith were at home in Texas, watching security footage as the Rio Grande rose higher and higher as it raced through the Fun Valley Family Resort, a property in South Fork they’ve managed for six years. 

When the river that draws people to spend summer days pulled up to its banks surged into a threatening torrent, they raced back to Colorado. Once they arrived at the 250-acre property they realized how much destruction the rain swollen river had done. 

“The first thing that we saw were the trailers barely hanging on, on the edge of the water,” Kathy Smith said.

She cried as she surveyed the flooded campground roads. Six red-roofed loft cabins had floated into the river. Two trailers had fallen into the water, and hundreds of RV sites were submerged. A bridge had washed away and debris continued to rush downstream.

“They’re still underwater. The water is still very angry, very high,” Kathy Smith said Tuesday morning. “It’s just an unreal sight to see. We just can’t comprehend even what we’re seeing.” 

Much of the damage remains unknown because parts of the campground, located just south of U.S. 160,  are still inaccessible. Floodwaters continue to pound against an activity center near a broken levee.

The resort closed for the season on Labor Day, so when the flooding began, no guests or staff were there, except for a sole contractor who tried to cut down trees to protect the resort’s bridges. He retreated as the water rose.

The Rio Grande winds through the campground, which has welcomed visitors since 1959. With 16 stocked fishing ponds and the river running through its grounds, Fun Valley has long been more than a place to park an RV, Mike Smith said. For generations of families, it’s been a place to return to year after year, where children grow up and memories are made.

“The kids will learn how to ride their bike for the first time here. They catch their very first fish here,” Kathy Smith said. “We even have adults catch their very first fish here at Fun Valley. It’s more than just an RV park, you know. It is a home.”

Average summer flows on the river through the campground are between 300 and 400 cubic feet per second, but in the latest storm, flows topped 7,000 cubic feet per second, and the river rose more than 9 feet, Mike Smith said.

It was far worse than flooding last October, when the river flowed at about 3,300 cubic feet per second. 

The Smiths hope to reopen the campground by Memorial Day, when the season typically begins.

“It’s just gonna be a lot of work between here and there, but Fun Valley is part of the soul of a lot of people. It’s in their heart,” Kathy Smith said.

“All the miracles in life”

Hank and Stacey Wills knew the flood was coming. 

They saw the warnings of heavy rain for Archuleta County, but online updates seemed to indicate that it would be less severe than a similar flood in 2025, the couple told reporters Monday night during a media briefing hosted by the county.

“We thought, we made it through last year,” Hank Wills said. “We’ll add some sand bags, and we should be OK this year.”

The couple woke up at 4 a.m. Thursday to pile sandbags and place tarps at their home next to the Rio Blanco River south of Pagosa Springs. They sent their pet rabbits home with Hank Wills’ parents. A sheriff’s deputy showed up Thursday to tell them there was a mandatory evacuation order for the Rio Blanco and they needed to evacuate. But they were in a hurry, and Hank didn’t ask when the peak would hit. 

That evening, the water started to spill over the sandbag wall. They were monitoring the water levels at the diversion dam upstream and knew they’d have about five hours to leave once they saw a peak at the upstream gauge. 

“And then it just started getting worse in a hurry,” Hank Wills said. “I think there was heavier rain between us and that flow gauge. Obviously that hit us quicker than we thought it should.”

They loaded belongings into their RV and headed out. His mother’s car nearly washed off the road. As the Willses tried to cross a watery section of road, the engine stalled — water was in the intake, and it wouldn’t start again. It was dark, around 10:30 p.m., and they were stuck, looking at the amount of water between their RV and dry ground. 

Hank Wills’ parents went back to their house and called a tow truck. The trucking company said they’d be there in 45 minutes.

“The water was still below the headlights on our vehicle,” Stacey Wills said. 

They decided to wait — but the tow truck never showed. It couldn’t cross a bridge that was closed.

Deputy Craig Tamburelli with the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office arrived after 2:15 a.m. Friday. Rapid whitewater was flowing over the hood and windshield of the RV, which was 20 feet or more from dry ground, he said. He called search and rescue and yelled instructions to the couple across the rushing water. 

Tamburelli threw a rope to the vehicle so the couple could anchor it to something secure on the RV — only the vehicle didn’t have good anchor points. The couple secured it to a table, the best option at the time. 

Search and rescue teams were about five minutes away. Tamburelli got out a chainsaw to cut a trail along the side of the mountain to open up easier access to the vehicle. Water was rising inside the RV.

“I had limited tools and resources at that time,” Tamburelli said. “I couldn’t do nothing.”

But by then, the water had started undercutting the RV, and it was starting to tip into the river. Hank Wills was holding the rope to make sure it was secure.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the RV turned a hard left and remained upright as it was swept downstream. The tension ripped the table leg off the table and the leg hit both Willses as it was pulled out of the window.

Tamburelli went to intersection after intersection to try to intercept the RV, but each was washed out. Hank Wills was watching the shore as the water carried them downstream, while his wife tried to gather the dogs and keep them calm.

“I just kept praying, you know, Heavenly Father, please just let us catch something. Land us somewhere,” he said, recalling more and more water flowing into the RV. 

Something in the river caught and ripped the axel off of the motor home. The RV tilted onto its side, lurched into the main channel and slid across the ground. They could hear the rocks scraping the side of the vehicle. 

“We smashed into, of all places, our own fence about 75 yards from our own house,” Hank Wills said. 

A cabinet and sink was their largest dry area, but it broke, so they used the remaining table as a platform. Stacey Wills said her bag of clothes had stayed dry, so they were able to change clothes to stay warmer and drier in the chilly water. 

“We just tried to make ourselves cozy for a little while,” Stacey Wills said. 

Eventually, Tamburelli stopped in the middle of U.S. 84 and saw the couple flashing an SOS signal. 

He called in a swift water rescue team to try to get to the RV, which by then was in the middle of the river channel. But there was no safe point to access the vehicle from either side of the channel. By this point, it was 5 a.m.

By 6 a.m., Stanley Okazaki, Archuleta County’s deputy of emergency operations, was on duty. He brought in a drone, equipped with thermal imaging, a microphone and other equipment — that provided a way to communicate with the couple and fly a rope line to the RV to serve as a high line to transport personnel or food and supplies.

The Willses said they were OK, so the rescue teams decided to hold off for a safer opportunity to help the couple. They turned to the National Guard. Three hours later, a Black Hawk helicopter arrived and hoisted each person and pet out of the RV. 

About 45 minutes later, the couple and their five pets were back on dry ground.

Hank and Stacey were able to thank the responders during a media briefing Monday night. 

“It’s pretty incredible for all that you do and all that you risk,” Stacey Wills said. “You guys deserve a lot more credit than you ever get.”

The couple’s message to others? Know what you can take with you, and what you can’t. Have “go bags” prepared ahead of time. And when the responders say go, it’s time to leave. 

“All the miracles in life — I just don’t know what more to say,” Stacey Wills said.

Their recovery process is just beginning. The couple is staying with family for the time being. They’ve been able to make it back to their own home, and luckily, the water didn’t make it into the house itself.

Their outbuildings were pummeled by water, mud and debris. So they’ve got cleaning to do as they hope the next storm won’t be as bad, Hank Wills said.

“Mostly, it’s just making it through.”