The flooding that ravaged Colorado in Sept. destroyed 154 manufactured homes (MH) and damaged 901 additional MH, displacing thousands of residents in the 11 manufactured housing communities (MHC) in the flood zone, according to Kerri Nelson, the state’s deputy chief recovery officer. Some communities may spring back to life with new or renovated homes, but entire neighborhoods in Lyons, Longmont, Evans and Milliken will be history if planning officials decide there are better uses for the properties and safer places to resettle. The loss of affordable housing in northern Colorado communities has been so extensive town fathers are challenged by lack of resources and solid ideas of what to do. In the town of Evans, over 1,000 people lost their homes, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refused to help pay the estimated $800,000 tab to remove debris from the MHCs, an expensive undertaking for a town of 20,000 people. The denverpost.com also says the waste water treatment plant needs to be repaired or replaced. In addition, MHProNews has learned families having to relocate are finding the demand for new sites and replacement homes has driven up prices in neighboring communities.

(Photo credit: John Wark/Associated Press–South Platte River flooding)