WSP08673

• File Number: 5000.175
• Description: Flood Protection Section - Floods - Atlas and History - Colorado
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 11/1/1981
• Author: CWCB
• Title: Fact Sheet - Floodplain Management in Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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FACT SHEET

FLOODPLAINMANAGENENT IN COLORADO

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November 1981

Prepared by the Colorado Water Conservation Board

Floods are natural yearly occurrences. Floods become a problem
when man utilizes floodplain areas. In Colorado, the three main
causes of flooding are:

1. Intense, localized thunderstorms.
2. Spring and early summer snowmelt.
3. Spring and early summer thunderstorms
falling on snowpacked areas.

These conditions haye_caused serious floods in Colorado.
Some of these floods are:

j
139 killed $35.5 million
5 missing 1 in damages
2..-71.( <.:f7'20 80%ov
Because these kinds of problems will continue to occur, the
Federal government, the State of Colorado, and local governments
are engaged in various floodplain management activities to help
people protect themselves and their property from flood damage.
01 t""" .
O~D lIn Colorado, the lOO-year or 1 percent chance flood is the stan-
~ \\ '{a dard for floodplain management. This is also the national stan-
.' dard, adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its
National Flood Insurance Program.

1) June 1921

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78 killed

Arkansas River
at Pueblo

2) Nay 1935

of
Monument and 18 killed
Fountain Creeks
at Colorado Springs

3) June 1965

South Platte and
Arkansas Rivers

24 killed
in Colo.,
Kan.& N.M.
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10 killed

4) May 1973

South Platte R.

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5) July 1976

Big Thompson R.

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$19.0 million
in damages

$1.76 million
in damages

$543.0 million
in damages

$121.5 million
in damages

Over the past two decades, the floodplain has been identified or
is currently being studied on approximately 2,660 miles of
Colorado streams. This is only about one-fourth of the streams
that need to be studied in the state. In the Front Range area
alone, about 1,500 miles of hazardous mountain canyons still need
to be studied. The Colorado Water Conservation Board has des-
ignated and approved 175 floodplain studies since 1963, when the
program began.

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