Toddler survives in freezing river 14 hours.

he Weather Channel had a special report this week on the flooding in Colorado. One tragic story after another was unfolded in the hour-long show. It was a well done report. What really struck me the next day when I thought again about the show was how resilient the people affected appeared to be.

A number of the Coloradans expressed an interest in returning to their homes, roads would be rebuilt and if they had to spend a couple months as an evacuee they would. Not only that, but a number of the Coloradans had experienced the 1976 flood of the Thompson River Canyon. They had lost friends and loved ones and still stayed and rebuilt. This was their second major disaster. Maybe even their third or fourth if they suffered from last years' forest fires.

I wondered if the Coloradans were a hardier group of people than your average American. After all, some of the present day Coloradans came from pioneer stock. Their ancestors endured hardships on wagon trains including torrential rains, hail, and flooding on the Platte River. Once in Colorado they survived freezing temperatures and blinding snowstorms. None of these challenges had obviously stopped their relatives.

But what about the group of Coloradans who didn't have this pioneer blood flowing in their veins? What made them so tough?

A Fourteener is a mountain that is over fourteen thousand feet in height.There are fifty-five massive Fourteeners in Colorado. There are about a gazillion smaller mountains in the state. What happens to people when they are surrounded by mountains that have stood for eighty million years? Do the strong, sturdy mountains somehow pass on their characteristics to the Coloradans?

My son Charlie called yesterday from the University of Colorado in Boulder. His once three roommate house has turned into an eight roommate house until his friends can find alternative housing after the flood wiped out their rental homes and apartments. How was anyone managing to get any studying done? Was everybody getting irritated and cranky?

They were going to the library to study but were sharing meals and enjoying themselves for the most part. These students come from around the country, as far away as Hawaii. Is it just their youth that is making them so resilient? Or is it maybe, just maybe, that they've been in Colorado long enough for the magic of the state's surrounding glorious mountains to infuse in them?

Toddler survives in freezing river 14 hours... by Awaiz_pp