Facebook has been a big help to those of us who are recovering from the big Colorado floods last September.

Immediately after the flood, it was a way to communicate what was happening with getting access to homes cut off by destroyed highways and roads. The people in this area have used it to share their post-flood experiences with banks, insurance companies, and utility providers, as well as bear and snake sightings (we didn't used to have a problem with rattlesnakes), and memories of the old days in the canyon.

Now it has evolved into a central source for any information that is at all related to flood recovery, a repository of flood news and updates, as well as local government news and other areas of concern like preparing for wildfires. If we ever have a wildfire, it will once again have the more individual focus as people seek information from their neighbors.

I discovered a Google search capability that emails me whenever anything about my key search terms (Colorado floods, snow melt, runoff, Estes Park, etc.) appears in news items published on the Internet. It saves me a lot of time, and I'm constantly surprised at how some obscure newspaper will occasionally publish an article about Colorado flood recovery.

There was one very touching column in a Nebraska newspaper - a woman recalling family vacations in Estes Park back in the 1960s and 70s that brought back those days for many of us who grew up here.

The word about our Facebook group page has gotten out, and we have 370 members on this closed group (I have to approve each person who wants to see the posts). I can tell when there has been a meeting where someone said: "you have to sign up for this Facebook page" because I get clumps of requests from people who live in the same area or belong to the same organization.

But other than using it to provide public information to a large audience of strangers, Facebook is not where I want to share too much personal information via my own page - I have never given Facebook all those details of my life and family relationships that they keep asking for. Since some of my real-life friends and family only communicate via Facebook, I occasionally throw them a bone by posting a new photo.

MyBloggers is where I feel that I can describe my triumphs and woes to an audience of true friends. I can trust you all to understand what I'm saying, and often think of things I want to tell you. Big thanks to Eddie for keeping it going for us, and I've really appreciated how stable it has been over the past many months.