The flood death toll continued to rise Thursday when authorities announced two new fatalities.
Thursday afternoon, the Boulder County Coroner’s Office announced that a body found near Lyons had been identified as 80-year-old Gerald Boland.
Boland was a former Lyons basketball coach and longtime teacher. His truck was found battered and abandoned after last weeks’ flooding.
Earlier, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department said a 46-year-old Drake man is presumed dead after he and his home were washed away.
His name was not released.
“We don’t have a body yet, so we can’t put out a name,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Kathy Mesick.
She said crews had not started the search for the man’s body, but instead, were focused on finding survivors in the devastated community of about 1,000 residents in the Big Thompson Canyon.
Two other deaths have been assumed in Larimer County: when the Big Thompson River flooded Cedar Cove, about five miles east of Drake, on Sept. 14.
Rescuers in Larimer County on Thursday said they were looking for 139 people who have not made contact with friends or loved ones since the flooding began the night of Sept. 11.
Boulder County has had three previous confirmed deaths: , 72, who was killed in Jamestown Sept. 12 when his home crushed by 12 feet of rocks and mud; and , both 19, who were were swept away in floodwaters in northwest Boulder on Sept. 11.
As of Thursday, in Boulder County.
One of those is former Lyons .
El Paso County has two confirmed deaths: , 54, was found in Fountain Creek on Sept. 12. , was found in Sand Creek on Sept. 16.
In Clear Creek County on Sept. 16, 83-year-old was swept three miles down Clear Creek when the bank he was standing on collapsed, Idaho Springs police said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
