After days spent on various clean up tasks and repair activities for the recent Colorado flooding 2013 disaster, various officials of the transportation office recently reported the reopening of various highways within the northern part of the state, The Associated Press reports.

With roads opening up again, the number of evacuees needing shelters slowly lessen and state officers are looking forward to see less congestion.

"I think for a lot of people it's not returning to normal, per se, but it's starting to get there with some of these roads being reopened," Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Amy Ford said. They reopened two state highways on Friday and six more on Saturday.

Other primary highways that have been up for reopening include the Colorado 72 to Colorado 7 within Estes Park and also Colorado 119 in between County Line and the Interstate 25 within Longmont. More officials are also trying to reopen some parts of the U.S. Highway 34 the soonest according to Ms. Ford.

On the other hand, Longmont Times-Call reports that E. coli was discovered in the drinking water of Lyons town, and it might take about 6 months, the most, before the town gets livable again. Steve Gunderson, the director of the water quality control division of the state confirmed that millions of gallons of water from sewages have been set free due to septic systems that were torn out by the waters caused by the flood. There are no reports of any illness caused by the dirty water since most of the community people are boiling their water before consumption.

AP adds that the American Red Cross has 250 people safe in shelters on Saturday. There were seven who died and three missing but are presumed dead already. Aid worth $12.3 million was distributed to various housing requirements needed for repairs and temporal rentals by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Related