Small, intense storm f loods Colorado basements

pronounced dead the next day at a hospital.

On Thursday, Sean Haber said he has trouble understanding how his wife could be taken away so quickly in such an unexpected way, especially when other areas near Denver did not get rain.

Haber said his wife, who often worked late to help patients, recently got a master’s degree in business and planned to go into hospital administration and advocate for people dealing with the complicated health care system.

Abigael Froelich, a friend of the woman who lives in the basement apartment, spent Thursday morning with other women clad in knee-high rain boots sorting through soaked and stained items.

They were looking for anything salvageable in the water-logged unit, where leaves and other debris still stuck to the walls and ceiling. Drying mud coated the patterned tile on the rear landing and stairs.

“It’s devastating down there,” Froelich said, her voice quivering. “You walk down and you feel completely overwhelmed.”

Froelich, 28, said tenant Kembra Allen was visiting family in California and could not get back immediately. Allen described Haber as her best friend and asked Haber to look after Samson, Froelich said. The black-and-white cat also died in the flooding.

The Associated Press was not able to immediately reach Allen.

Quick-moving afternoon thunderstorms are typical in Colorado in mid-summer as moisture from the Gulf of California and Gulf of Mexico is drawn into the U.S. West for monsoon season.

However, an unusual low-pressure system over the Midwest — which has led to heavy rain in the East — is contributing to storms over Colorado, Danielson said. The pattern is expected to continue into next week.

Standing outside and looking into the basement apartment, Froelich said she could imagine rushing water making it impossible to escape.

Other neighbors lugged damaged items from three affected houses nearby onto front porches or into sun-soaked yards to dry.

Beth Minnick owns a home across the street from the dwelling where Haber was found and rents out a basement apartment. Minnick said she has tried to get flood insurance for the property but was denied because the area isn’t on a federally approved flood map.

Minnick said a father and his 21-year-old son who rent the basement unit were home during the storm and described water rising to their chests in seconds. They were able to escape safely, but several pet birds died, she said.

“They’re traumatized,” Minnick said of the tenants.

David Zalubowski The Associated Press The water line hangs over steps to a basement apartment that was flooded as clean-up efforts continued in Englewood, Colo. A friend of a renter died in the basement apartment Tuesday, after it was flooded by an intense storm.