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<br />space and industrial commercial areas. The other ~a::, <br />drainageways are fully urbanized in the Denver area and are bounde: <br />by residential development W'lth the exceptlon at the South P;'a::e <br />River and Cherry Creek. which also flow through commercia, dtO <br />industrial areas. ' <br /> <br />2.3 Principal Flood Problems <br /> <br />Past flooding along most of the streams in Denver has beer. wel: <br />documented in several reports by the COE and the UDFCD. <br /> <br />Large floods have been reported on the South Platte River 1n 1844. <br />1864, 1867, 1876, 1894, 1921, 1933, 1942, 1965, and 1973. The <br />largest and most damaging of these occurred June 16 and 17. 1965, <br />when a discharge of 40,300 cubic feet per second (cfs) was computed <br />at U.S. Geological Survey stream gage No. 06714000 near the 19th <br />Street bridge in Denve;'. Flooding occurred throughout the South <br />Platte River Basin with six persons drowned, two other deaths <br />caused by flood-related activities, and estimated damages of $500 <br />million, of which $300 million occurred in the Denver area <br />(References 3-7). <br /> <br />Past floods on Clear Creek in the Denver area have been infrequent <br />and usually not severe in the lower reaches. The major flooding <br />has occurred upstream from Denver, including the City of Golden in <br />1888 (8,700 cfa) and 1956 (5,250 cfs), and Derby in 1965 (5,070 <br />cfs) (Reference 8). <br /> <br />Flooding has occurred along Bear Creek in 1876, 1894, 1896, 1957, <br />1965, and 1969. The 1896 flood was the largest experienced, with <br />27 lives lost and severe property damage reported from the Town of <br />Evergreen to the mouth. The discharge at the Town of Horrison <br />gaging' station was 8,600 cfs (Reference 9). <br /> <br />Prior to the construction of Cherry Creek Dam, major floods <br />occurred on Cherry Creek in 1864, 1885, 1'H2, and 1933. Both the <br />1912 and 1933 floods were reported to have resulted in damages of <br />approximately $1 mill ion (Reference 10). Construction of Cherry <br />Creek Dam was completed in 1950, and the dam is estimated to have <br />prevented considerable damage during the flood of June 1965. <br /> <br />From 1942 to the present, there have been at least 14 years wi th <br />major flooding events from Cherry Creek, during which flooding of <br />premises and impedance of traffic occurred. Flood-causing rainfall <br />in these years produced overland inundation of homes and streets to <br />depths of as much as 4.5 feet. Floodflows in this area (north of <br />Lowry Air Force Base) for these storm events were in the range of <br />300 to 600 cfs. From 1942 through the early 1960s, flooding <br />problems were confined to areas downstream of Lowry Air Force Base. <br />Since approximately 1965, rainfall flood events have begun to occur <br />in the upper watershed as a direct result of the increasing density <br />of development (Reference 11). <br /> <br />9 <br />