Southern Colorado recovering from earthquakes

Posted: Aug 23, 2011 8:46 PM by John Romero
Updated: Aug 24, 2011 6:03 AM

Buildings crumbled, shelves were emptied and roads were left covered in debris as earthquakes rocked Southern Colorado last night and this morning.

"This was the scariest thing I've ever felt in my life." Valdez resident and Big 4 Country Store owner Ray Moltrer told us. Surveillance video he showed us fro the store tells the whole story. Tables and the camera itself began to shake as the 5.3 magnitude quake begins sending bottles crashing to the floor. "It was just like, wow! It just popped you out of bed. Your wife is screaming and your kids are screaming." says Moltrer. Now he's left to clean up the broken liquor bottles that litter his store... All lost profit for the small family business. "This is where the money is at." He said, "I'm kind of heart broken."

Just up the road, Charlie and Darlene Gumz couldn't even get in their house through the front door thanks to the quake. The tremors broke part of their fire place, threw cabinets and shelves to the floor, and nearly knocked the Gumz themselves out of bed. "The whole house was shaking and bouncing at the same time." says Darlene. "I could see us bouncing up and down on the bed. It actually threw her on me." adds Charlie.

The damage could also be seen on major roads as well. Both I-25 and Highway 12 near Trinidad experienced rock slides. C-DOT crews quickly took to the roads to asses the damage, including bridges in the area. Luckily no major damage was found. Even so, the biggest seismic event to hit Colorado in about 40 years is one that will not soon be forgotten.