Denver is mostly dried out after a Thursday afternoon rain storm that dumped nearly 3 inches of water and overwhelmed the city’s storm drainage system.
However, there is the threat of more wet weather this afternoon. The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather warning about afternoon and evening thunderstorms that could bring heavy rain to the Front Range again. Although forecasters say the storms expected to form in the foothills north of the Palmer Divide and then drift east toward the plains will bring less moisture than Thursday, they could drop as much as 1 inch of rain in 20 minutes.
As many as 5,000 Xcel Energy customers were still without power this morning, but the utility said it expected to restore service to the vast majority by noon.
There were no serious injuries reported last night.
Denver Fire received 125 water-related calls Thursday. Crews responded to one call after another of people stuck in the high water, spokesman Phil Champagne said.
A dive team was sent to rescue a person out of their car at the intersection of 38th Avenue and Lipan Street, where there was 6 feet of water.
Manhole covers were lifted up by overfilled storm drains. Luckily, no one fell in, Champagne said.
A large tree was toppled in the storm at East Sixth Avenue and Ogden Street in Denver and crews were cleaning it up this morning.
Some parts of Denver were drenched in up to 3-inches of water by Thursday’s storm. An official range gauge in City Park measured 2.99 inches of rain. At DIA, where the official weather records are collected, the NWS said 1.04 inches of rain fell. The record for July 7 is 1.41 inches, set in 1988 at Stapleton, where the records were previously collected.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
