Tornado injures man on golf course in suburban Denver

[June 09, 2014]  By Keith Coffman
 
 DENVER (Reuters) - Severe weather pounded eastern Colorado on Sunday, bringing heavy rain and spawning several tornados, one of which injured a man on a golf course near Denver, authorities said.

A line of storms marched along a 130-mile (210 km) stretch of the Colorado Rockies' front range and eastward onto the High Plains, said Frank Cooper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado.

He said the weather service had confirmed six twisters in all, most of which struck sparsely populated areas, with minimal damage reported.

One man sustained minor injuries when a tornado touched down in the Denver suburb of Aurora during a youth golf tournament, sending people scurrying for cover, the Aurora fire department said on its Twitter feed.

The nature of the man’s injuries was not immediately known. The same twister damaged a nearby home and overturned an empty construction trailer on the country club's property, the fire department said.
 

Three tornadoes touched down in rural Park County, about 30 miles west of Colorado Springs, in the late morning and early afternoon, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Several structures were damaged in the town of Lake George, but there were no reported injuries, police said, adding that residents of one neighborhood were evacuated to a nearby school until the storm passed.

By early evening the threat from tornados had passed, but showers were expected to linger in northeast Colorado into the night, the National Weather Service said.

A flood warning remained in effect for the Cache La Poudre River in Weld county, which has been above flood stage for nearly a week, causing flooding to homes and businesses in the city of Greeley last week.

At least five people have died in rain-swollen Colorado streams and rivers over the last two weeks, as steady showers and a rapidly melting mountain snowpack have engorged downstream waterways.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Clarence Fernandez)

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