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On May 28, 1993, rain on snowmelt flooding occurred at Paonia on the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The rainfall occurred over a five-hour period during the evening. This caused the North Fork of the Gunnison River to reach its highest level since the 1984 flood season. Many miles of agriculture land experienced severe bank erosion in unincorporated Delta County. Ice Jam Floods In 1955, 1962, and 1983, flooding in Rangely resulted from ice jams. In addition, flooding in Meeker in 1973 and in Gunnison in 1980 resulted from ice jams. Dam Failure Floods Although few lives have been lost from dam failures, property damage has been high. There have been at least 130 known dam failures and incidents in Colorado since 1890. The failure of the Lower Latham Reservoir Dam in 1973 and subsequent flooding in the Town of Kersey, Weld County, Colorado, resulted in a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration. The earliest recorded dam failure flood in the Estes Park region occurred on May 25, 1951, when Lilly Lake Dam failed, sending flood waters down Fish Creek and into Lake Estes. In June 1965, a flood occurred on Clay Creek in Prowers County, which overtopped an earthen dam being constmcted by the Colorado Game, Fish, and Parks Commission. Although the dam did not fail, it did divert floodwater into an adjacent drainage. The subsequent damage and death from this flood resulted in an important legal controversy known as the Barr Case. This case was finally decided in 1972 by the Colorado Supreme Court, which recognized the concept of probable maximum flood as a predictable and foreseeable standard for spillway design purposes. The Lawn Lake Disaster of 1982 resulted from the failure of a privately owned dam on Forest Service property, and $31 million of damage was sustained in Larimer County and Estes Parle A lawsuit awarded $480,000 to one of the four persons killed in the disaster. The most unusual flood from the failure of a manmade stmcture in Colorado is probably the complete draining of Lake Emma, a natural lake located high in the San Juan Mountains above Silverton, Colorado. On June 4, 1979, floodwater flowed through a network of tunnels in an abandoned mine that extended under the lake. 21