Colorado mudslide: Man Died Buried In Mud; Others Missing [Video]

At least one person is reported dead and three others are missing in Manitou Springs, Colorado after a mudslide and flash flooding on Friday night.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office confirmed a man’s body was found in flash flooding debris along U.S. 24. The body was not inside a vehicle, and the identity of the victim is not known.

On Saturday morning, the Manitou Springs Fire Department confirmed several people are missing. Three people are unaccounted for including a woman last seen hanging in a tree near a creek, a man whom neighbors have not seen since the floods and Juston Travis, 24, whose mother reported she was unable to contact him.

Police Chief Joe Ribeiro said several homes have been destroyed and the town suffered significant damage. Violent floodwaters swept through the town, lifting homes from their foundations.

The Gazette reported that the streets were littered with debris and vehicles were pushed off the highway,.

The mudslide closed U.S. 24 between Cascade and Manitou Springs, and also closed part of U.S. 50.

Elissa Hokenstad, assistant manager of the Manitou Springs Arcade, told the Gazette:”It’s just absolute chaos…we always have to keep it in the back of our minds, but I didn’t think it would happen tonight”

At The Cliff House at Pikes Peak, the hotel’s staff put sandbags around the lower deck and back doors as a precaution.

Cliff House front-office manager Roland Sardaczuk told the Associated Press: “The sandbags we put up were washed out almost immediately…..the cars parked on Park Avenue — the water just threw them around like they were toys.”

This is the fourth flash food to strike the area this year; It seems that this might not be the last Colorado mudslide we’ll have to report.