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<br />Floodplain development within the corporate limits consists of fairgrounds, commercial <br />facilities, and a few residential acreages. <br /> <br />The vegetation of the river area is composed of weeds and willow bushes covering the <br />banks and several stands of cotton-wood trees growing in the flood plain. <br /> <br />The major soil types in the flood plain are of the Fluraquents-Fluvent Association, warm <br />and deep in composition and poorly drained (Reference 4). <br /> <br />The Town ofTimnath <br />The Town of Timnath is located in eastern Larimer County. The town is approximately 6 <br />miles east of the City of Fort Collins. The latest census in 2000 estimates the town's <br />population as 223 (Reference 61). <br /> <br />The Cache La Poudre River runs southeasterly through the western part of the town. <br /> <br />The Town of Wellington <br />The Town of Wellington is located in the eastern part of Larimer County. Wellington is <br />approximately 10 miles northeast of Fort Collins. It had a population of 691 in 1970, and <br />grew to a population of 2,672, according to the 2000 Census (References 2 and 61). <br /> <br />Floodplain development in Wellington is residential and commercial, with most of this <br />development occurring in the shallow flooding area of Coal Creek. Boxelder Creek flows <br />southward through the western side of Wellington. The channel ends several miles north <br />of Wellington and the water flows through agricultural fields until it enters the channel in <br />the southeast part of town. For purposes of this study, a stream baseline has been <br />delineated for Coal Creek through Wellington. <br /> <br />2.3 Principal Flood Problems <br /> <br />Major floods on the streams are caused by intense rainfall from localized thunderstorms <br />over the basins. The floods caused by such events will characteristically have high peak <br />discharges of short duration for all of the mountain-area streams. Floods on the streams in <br />the plains areas are normally of a longer duration with less velocity and considerable <br />channel storage. Flooding can also occur as a result of rapid spring snowmelt. These <br />floods characteristically are of longer duration. <br /> <br />Significant floods have occurred on the streams within the county in past years. One <br />significant flood within the county occurred on the Big Thompson River, July 31 to August <br />1, 1976. This flood was one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Colorado. <br />Intense precipitation over an approximate 60-square-mile area between Lake Estes and <br />Drake, with rainfall depths up to 12 inches, generated a flood discharge of approximately <br />31,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) at the mouth of the canyon. This flood is known to have <br />taken 139 lives. Property damage was estimated at $16.5 million, while hundreds of <br />people were left homeless. Over 200 residential structures were damaged or destroyed by <br />the flood, while nearly 1,200 land parcels were adversely affected (Reference 5). Floods <br /> <br />14 <br />