BAYFIELD — About 100 people, most of them evacuees of a flooded neighborhood in southwestern Colorado, gathered Monday night in a school cafeteria in Bayfield, about 20 miles east of Durango. Thunder boomed and a new onslaught of rain started just before emergency officials started to brief the community members.
“This whole thing started very early in the morning on Saturday,” said Chief Bruce Evans of the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.
As official after official stood up to share updates on everything from roads to septic systems and public safety, one question lingered: How much more rain would Monday night bring to their neighborhood on the northern edge of Vallecito Reservoir?
Heavy clouds and thunderstorms, initially fueled by Hurricane Priscilla in the Pacific Ocean, dropped up to 6 inches of rain on parts of southern Colorado over the weekend, prompting evacuations for almost 400 homes, and damaging roads and bridges. About 100 homes have been damaged. No deaths or major injuries were reported, as of Monday night.
The National Weather Service expected more rain to soak parts of La Plata and Archuleta counties as the remnants of another tropical storm moved over the region, as of Monday night.
The next big pulse of water from the storms will likely hit rivers and streams, like the Pine River in La Plata County, during the early morning hours Tuesday, officials said.
The storms over the weekend flooded other nearby waterways, like Vallecito Creek, which runs into Vallecito Reservoir. The reservoir’s dam was completed in 1942, in part, to help with flood control.
“The weather service has showed us that that’s actually going to have more runoff than we had Saturday,” Evans said. “That’s a lot of the reason why we can’t let you back in (to your homes).”
A woman runs through the rain on her way into a community meeting at Bayfield Intermediate School Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Officials briefed evacuees during the meeting on road repairs, public safety measures and more. (Shannon Mullane, The Colorado Sun)The weather service also extended flood warnings to Tuesday night for the area north of Vallecito Reservoir, the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs, as well as Archuleta, La Plata, Hinsdale, and San Juan counties.
Evans warned community members to carefully restart their power and propane tanks, which emergency crews turned off, to avoid fire risk.
The American Red Cross offered supplies, overnight amenities and counselors who could help with the mental and emotional impacts of being displaced.
County Road and Bridge crews talked about the work they did to protect roads from being washed away and to repair damage to bridges. (One had a sinkhole form under a section road.)
La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith told residents that emergency managers hoped evacuees could return to their homes by Tuesday.
Annie Butler, who lives on the edge of the evacuation and pre-evacuation areas near Vallecito Reservoir, decided to leave Friday just in case. She doesn’t know yet if her house was damaged.
“I won’t know until I get there,” she said.
One man could see the flood waters move around his property from a camera installed on his house. Only his crawlspace was impacted, he said. Another man was able to return home Sunday to get his medication, he said.
About 40 miles to the east in Pagosa Springs, the San Juan River surged over its banks Monday afternoon through the downtown area. Houses along the riverbank were empty and evacuated, and parks along the shore were roped off with caution tape. Parents and families jumped the tape to photograph the rushing water.
The Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs partially floods Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, after prolonged storms dropped inches of rain on the town. (Shannon Mullane, The Colorado Sun)At The Springs Resort, one of the main tourist draws for the town, some of the lower thermal springs and cold plunges at the riverside resort were completely flooded. Sand bags lined the lower levels Monday afternoon, with water lapping at their bottoms.
Jesse Hensle, the resort’s vice president of marketing, described the weekend as “high-energy fun” as they moved guests into higher pools. The resort is used to dealing with high flows during spring runoff, so they put their usual plan in place, rapidly, over the weekend.
“There were times that we as a team started to get a little bit nervous, but we have a very solid team and plan in place,” Hensle said. “Once the water got to certain levels, it was, ‘OK, now we move the guests to the next space.’”
Across the river, Joey Noriega, a barista at Root House, said he was fishing Friday in the San Juan River downtown when he saw the water start to rise. He wasn’t impacted by evacuations or boil water notices, and the coffee shop, which sits several feet higher than the river, didn’t expect to be impacted by any flooding.
He’s keeping his eye on the forecast for the next few days. Pagosa Springs will be hit by the next wave of rain coming from the southwest.
“I would say people are kind of worried about it,” Noriega said. “I wasn’t too worried about it until I noticed it when I was fishing, and then I was like, ‘It’s coming.’”
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