DENVER — When rain falls, if it does, Colorado faces a rising risk of flooding, mudslides and rockfalls — like those that closed Interstate 70 last year — due to an “expanding bull's-eye” of barren, scorched and less-stable terrain.
And Colorado officials say everybody will need flood insurance and other protection — not just residents living in federally designated hazard zones.
The “bull's-eye” concept describes the growing area in Colorado where hard rain and hail pack more punch — caused by a shift to aridity amid a 22-year severe drought and wildfires burning more land, state climatologist Russ Schumacher said. Some 36 burn scars from fires cover more than 700 square miles.
