Roaring Waters, Deep Scars - "It Chewed Us Up" - NYTimes.com Jamestown, where homes fell into a creek and were crushed by landslides, was one of many devastated towns in Colorado. JAMESTOWN, Colo. - In the Colorado mountains, the floodwaters struck Jamestown like an invading army. Houses tumbled into the churning Little James Creek. A torrent of rocks and mud crushed Joey Howlett, 72, in his home. People rushed into the rain in pajamas, children in their arms, to shouts of "Get out! Get out! About fifty miles downstream in the blue-collar city of Evans, the flood filled up poor neighborhoods like a stoppered sink. The rain-swollen South Platte poured into enclaves of Hispanic immigrants. It filled trailers with raw sewage and mud. As the police pounded on doors, families rushed around inside amid the encroaching sludge, desperately trying to locate green cards and work papers. Jamestown and Evans. One, a 280-person town of picturesque homes, string musicians and organic gardeners. The other, a 20,000-person city on the plains, where families have journeyed from Mexico to work at the meatpacking plant and in the oil fields. Now they are bound together by Colorado's worst flood in a generation, two communities among dozens confronting urgent questions about how long it will take to recover. As the water has drained from the mountains to the plains, it has left a trail of devastation that state officials say will take years to wipe away and that one estimate has put at $2 billion. In the mountains, entire roads have vanished, cutting off remote communities from the rest of the world. Nearly 18,000 homes have been wrecked or damaged. At least 50 bridges are gone. Hundreds of miles of highway are cracked and buckled. "It chewed us up," said Jake Brotherton, 21, a glass blower who grew up in Jamestown and stayed behind with his family as other residents were evacuated by helicopter. The flooding hit 17 counties in Northern Colorado, ravaging an area four times the size of Los Angeles. It snatched up cars and couches, family photos and farm animals. Officials believe it swept away at least 10 people - an 80-year-old woman who drowned at home, a 79-year-old woman lost in the Big Thompson River, a teenage couple swamped after they left their car. Tourist towns like Lyons and Estes Park, which sit at the doorway to Rocky Mountain National Park, are bracing for months of economic pain. Residents are beginning to return, but the main roads leading into both towns are likely to be closed for months. Estes Park has canceled its Autumn Gold Festival. In Jamestown, the residents who stayed behind have turned to one another. They cooked pancakes and bacon at the Mercantile Cafe as the waters rose, and sang "This Little Light of Mine" when the body of Mr. Howlett, a beloved local figure, was carried out of his ruined home. To reconnect neighborhoods separated by rushing waters, they built bridges with a resident's donated lumber. "We couldn't leave each other," said Anne Breiler, a retired nurse whose home survived the deluge. The floods and landslides began late on Sept. 11 and worsened as a foot of rain pounded the town. The swollen creek burst through bridges, gutted roads, knocked some homes into the water and ruined many more. 13, Jyoti Sharp woke up to find that half of her home was dangling above the roaring creek. "We were surrounded on all sides," she said. Though she had flood insurance, Ms. Sharp said the $250,000 policy would not be enough to cover the damage. Water mains were destroyed, phone lines are still down and the main road to Boulder lies in shards. Winter's approach will make life only harder for people who are now lugging buckets of creek water to flush their toilets. Like many other displaced residents, Chad Droste, a trustee on the town board, is staying in Boulder, where he works for a maintenance company - right now tearing up carpets in other flooded apartments. He has a fierce love for Jamestown and says he wants to live out his life there and be buried in the town cemetery. But he does not anticipate returning anytime soon. "It's going to be years before the town is actually in a state where people would want to live there," he said. Residents have vowed to rebuild the town they treasure, and can already envision the celebration in the town's small park. But between now and then, there are heaps of rocks, houses listing into the water and months and months of work. As the water streamed down from mountain communities like Jamestown, it raced toward lowland cities and towns like Evans. Jack Healy reported from Jamestown, Colo., and Dan Frosch from Evans, Colo.