Counting Our Many Blessings At Gold Lake

All are aware of the tragedies which have befallen many as a result of flooding in Colorado. We are grateful for your calls and emails, and want to let everyone know that we experienced minimal impact from the storms.

Some of the worst damage from the storm occurred just miles east of us in Jamestown. Airlifts were required to get residents to safety, and it is unclear how long it will be before they are again a functioning town. In Boulder, residents and businesses are clearing out debris and assessing infrastructure. As we learned of lives lost, homes lost, of entire towns cut off from the world we recognized that we were truly among the most fortunate in Boulder County. Today a Mentor who lives in Jamestown was able to share some of his story and help us all put this experience in perspective.

Our experience of this event at Insight Intensive was, at its worst, one of extreme inconvenience. We were prepared with a variety of plans were it necessary to evacuate for health or safety. Fortunately neither was at risk.
Gold Lake Road itself became difficult to traverse without high clearance and 4-wheel-drive. Actually, it would have been impassable had staff and participants not executed some ingenious road repair using shovels and logs. As of today it's dried out nicely and, while it still needs some major attention, all vehicles can pass. The main canyon roads between us and Boulder are going to be out of commission for an extended period of time. Until Monday the only route was through Denver. Now we have a dirt road canyon that gets us to Boulder in about an hour.

In the midst of the storms we lost power. The generator kicked in and provided all we needed until power was restored the following day. Most of the running water on campus comes from our main well. That pump went out early on, and we are awaiting a repair crew which should have us back up today or tomorrow. We have a separate system in our Lake House, so there was no interruption in access to showers or laundry.

Food and drinking water were never an issue. We knew we had a two week supply of food, and a fully operational kitchen. Having nice warm meals certainly kept spirits up through the dreary rain and fog.

I have been particularly proud of our staff. We had to do some juggling of schedules, but remained fully staffed. Our program schedule shifted a bit over the weekend, but we were back to normal by Monday afternoon.
So, we've made it through safe and sound. The experience of being without running water on most of the campus, and of all communication being relegated to a few cell phones, was valuable for all of us. It certainly has been the topic of more than one process group! As of this morning, Participants are trudging ahead at developing valuable insight and effective tools for living. In other words, we made it through with little more than passing inconvenience.

We hope you all are well, and continue to have the flood victims in our hearts and minds.

Daniel Fishburn, MSW, LCSW
Program Director
Insight Intensive at Gold Lake
303-952-1432