Pagosa Springs Flooding: Colorado Church House on Half Its Foundation as River Crests Below Forecast

Senior Pastor Jon Duncan watched a house give way to the San Juan River, slide downstream, and break apart under a bridge. At the same time, a house owned by a member of his own church, Centerpoint Baptist Church in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, sat balanced on half its foundation. Duncan told Baptist Press that he saw answered prayer in the gap between what had been forecast and what the river actually did.

The house owned by the Centerpoint member was “balanced perilously on half its foundation,” Baptist Press reports. Duncan told Baptist Press he credits God for keeping the home from floating down the San Juan River. “They still have a house and we're rejoicing,” Duncan said, as reported by Baptist Press, adding: “We're so grateful for God's intervention.”

Meteorologists had expected the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs to crest at almost 22 feet, Duncan told Baptist Press. Instead, he said, “it ended up cresting at less than 17,” adding, as reported by Baptist Press: “Another 5 feet of that raging water and it would have done so much more damage all downstream.” Duncan also said, as reported by Baptist Press, that the rain was less than anticipated and the river crested much lower than anticipated.

The San Juan River at Pagosa Springs measured its two highest crests on 23 October and 1 November, the Weather Service reported, according to Baptist Press. Those crests did not pass the area's 1911 record flood, when the river crested at 17.8 feet, Baptist Press reports, and Duncan counts that a blessing. The family is among more than a dozen Centerpoint members who had to evacuate their homes during flooding made worse by two rounds of rainfall in the past week, Baptist Press reports.

Pagosa Springs Flooding San Juan River Crest Below Forecast

A local resident named Gallegos, an eighth-generation Pagosa Springs local, spotted her stepfather's home swept off its foundation in videos on social media on Monday, according to the Associated Press reporting carried by weather.com. Inside were old photographs and treasured possessions from her childhood, weather.com reports. “My heart's crushed, and it's not just him, it's all the people,” she said, as reported by weather.com.

Cleanup and repairs could take weeks or more in Pagosa Springs, weather.com reports, and the downtown area remained closed to traffic on Tuesday while workers cleared mud, water and debris. In Durango, about 60 miles west, Willow Bradner's ranch-style home was surrounded by about 2 feet of mud, weather.com reports, and nearly 5 feet of water from an overflowing creek poured inside at one point. “Our basement became a soup bowl,” Bradner said, as reported by weather.com, adding that the majority of the family's savings is in the house and: “We have to dig deep, and we have to rebuild.”

The wider Southwest picture, from the Associated Press reporting carried by weather.com on 4 November, is a region emerging from almost two weeks of on-and-off heavy rain, with skies beginning to clear on Tuesday. More than 20 trillion gallons of rain fell on the Four Corners states and Nevada in the past two weeks, according to former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue, as reported by weather.com. The weather.com report compared that total to 10 months of the flow over Niagara Falls.

Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief Pagosa Springs Staging Area

Centerpoint Baptist will serve as a staging area for Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief, Baptist Press reports, with volunteers from Colorado and Oklahoma expected, although flooding and washed-out roads prevented crews reaching the command centre. Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief issued a call on 3 November for donations to cover meals for volunteers, fuel, generators, field supplies and equipment and command-centre expenses, Baptist Press reports, quoting the relief body's email. The call was reported in that one attributed form here, so volunteers could recieve meals and fuel while they worked, and the deployment was expected to continue “for several weeks or longer,” Baptist Press reports.

About 50 miles west of Pagosa Springs, First Baptist Church of Bayfield opened its facilities to serve evacuated families, Pastor Chris Talleri told Baptist Press. Talleri said the one-hour drive from Bayfield to Pagosa Springs took about four hours because of washed-out roads and bridges. “There are lots and lots of roads that have washed out and bridges are collapsing,” Talleri said, as reported by Baptist Press, adding: “It's been pretty rough around here the last couple of weeks.”

No pastors reported damage to church facilities beyond minor roof damage, David Smith told Baptist Press. On lives lost, the reports differ by scope and are kept apart here: Baptist Press reports at least four deaths across several states, attributed to the National Weather Service and state leaders, with two each in Arizona and Florida, while AP reporting on weather.com reports one death and a second suspected weather-related death in a Southwest-focused passage.

Wider Christian relief stories: Today: Food For The Poor Jamaica Marks One Year After Hurricane Melissa With 255000 Helped, Pope Leo XIV Meets Earthquake Survivors Ten Years After Central Italy Earthquakes, Hurricane Isaias Relief: Christian Aid Groups Rush to Gulf Coast, Christian Relief Groups Rush to Florida and Alabama After Hurricane Isaias, and 80,000 Christians Pack AT&T Stadium for Night of Prayer: Is America Waking Up?.

Workers were looking for a way to move the house back onto its foundation, according to a photo caption in the Baptist Press report. Whether that house can be lifted, steadied and made a home again, and what the dozen evacuated Centerpoint families find when the roads reopen and the mud is cleared, is the question Pagosa Springs now carries into the weeks ahead. The river has fallen back below its forecast crest, but the answer for each family is still waiting on the far side of the cleanup.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.