FLOOD00151

• County: Statewide
• Title: 1998 Summer Flood Events
• Date: 7/1/1998
• Prepared For: State of Colorado
• Prepared By: Consultants
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Documentation Report

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Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
721 Centennial Building
1313 Sherman Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: (3D3) 866-4474

STATE OF COLORADO

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MEMORANDUM

Roy Romer
Governor

James s. Lochhead
Executive Director, DNR

Oaries C. Ule, P. E.
Director, ewes

Peter H. Evans
Acting Director, eweB

TO:

Larry Lang

CC: Brian, Mark, Tom
From: Carolyn Adam~::3.,l-

Date: August 3, 1998

RE: Rainstorms on July 30, 1998

On Thursday, July 30, 1998, several localized storm cells dropped up to 5 inches of rain in EI
Paso, Lincoln, Kiowa, and Bent counties. The Denver area also experienced severe storms, with
rainfall amounts from I to 2 inches.

In El Paso County, over 4 inches of rain fell south of Colorado Spring near Security, most of
which fell in a 2 hour period (see attached graph). Several streets were flooded with up to 3 feet
of standing water, but no significant property damage has been reported. Four inches of rain also
fell near Calhan. One county road was washed out, and the EI Paso County Fair had to be
canceled due to the rain. New drainage improvements at the County Fairgrounds did not
function quite as well as town officials had hoped, but street improvements in town worked welL

Reports of5" of rain in 2 hours came from south of John Martin Dam in Bent County. One
tornado was also spotted northeast of Las Animas, but did not cause any damage. There have
been no reports of flood damage from this storm,

Although the storm cell over the Denver area only resulted in an inch or so of rain in a 2 hour
period, wide spread flooding did occur along the 1-25 corridor south of Metro Denver,
specifically at 1-25 and Logan. Inadequate drainage is blamed for the flooding. Minor street
flooding also occurred throughout the area. Businesses near Evans and Lipan experienced
flooding due to poor drainage for the second time in under a week. Storms on Saturday, July
25th dumped up to 6 inches of rain in the area, overwhelming the outdated drainage system,
Business owners had little time to clean up before Thursday's storm hit.

Rain amounts of less than an inch triggered a mudslide in Black Hawk, damaging a casino and
covering parts of Main Street.

In an attempt to better document these flood and extreme rain events, I am putting together a
notebook of news articles, radar images and other relevant information, such as precipitation
charts and bucket survey results, The notebook will be in my office and will be organized by
date, Any information you may gather on future events should go into this notebook.