EVERGREEN, Colo. — Cleanup is underway at Cactus Jack’s Saloon and Grill in Evergreen after flooding Wednesday night.
“From three hours it went from nothing to, ‘hey, you know, it's starting to get a little water in the front door,’” owner Gary Mitchell recalled. “By the time I got up here, the whole parking lot was full, and within 20 minutes it started to go down, and this is the left, what's left over.”
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Brittney Watterud, an employee at Cactus Jack described the video that the business posted to its Facebook page Wednesday night saying, “it was moving really fast too, and I think that's the scariest part, is how fast the water can move, and just how strong water is.”
“We were really worried about if it got any higher if it came up on our patio, but thankfully it's gone down since last night,” she added Thursday morning.
Mitchell said the staff will spend Thursday cleaning up the kitchen, which received most of the damage, and also the patio.
With the business, located right next to Bear Creek, flooding like this was nothing new for staff.
Mitchell recalled when the creek flooded in 2013, saying Wednesday night felt like “déjà vu.”
“In 2013 it closed us for four and a half months,” Mitchell said.
He said the business flooded twice.
“The first time was kind of like round one, and the second time was when it washed away the whole foundation, have part of the foundation of the building, and there was a lot, there was a lot,” Mitchell described. “The whole inside was toast, had to gut the whole thing."
While Wednesday night’s flooding created a scary scene for Cactus Jack’s staff, Mitchell said the damage from this week was nothing compared to 2013.
“Obviously, it was very scary in the moment, and you never know what can happen, but based on the damage right now, and based on pictures that I've seen from 2013 I don't think we're super worried about it,” Watterud said.
Mitchell hopes to reopen the business Thursday afternoon, or by Friday at the latest, as staff said they are preparing for a busy weekend.
