HUD brings $62.8 million to bear on Colorado flood recovery (Denver Post)

Denver Post
(12/5/2013 7:48 PM, Kurtis Lee and Electa Draper)

LYONS — The federal government on Thursday said nearly $63 million in disaster-recovery funds will flow into Colorado to help counties with housing, infrastructure and economic rehab projects in the wake of September’s deadly floods.

About 80 percent of the $62.8 million grant will be spent in Boulder, Larimer, and Weld counties, where the communities hardest hit by flood waters are located.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet toured snow blanketed neighborhoods in Lyons on Thursday that just three months ago were raved by raging flood waters.

"It’s our job to make sure a town like Lyons can recover as fully and as effectively as possible ... to rebuild stronger smarter and better than the town was before and that is our goal," said Donovan.

The funding comes from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program and brings the total in federal flood relief — including Federal Emergency Management Assistance funds — to $185 million.