FLOOD00689

• Designation Number: 136
• County: Arapahoe
• Community: Littleton
• Stream Name: Slaughterhouse Gulch
• Title: Major Drainageway Planning - Slaughterhouse Gulch, Littleton
• Date: 5/1/1974
• Designation Date: 5/1/1979
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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Other damages considered in the damage analysis include channel
damages which consist of the costs incurred in repairing the
channel after an extreme flood flow. Costs for these damages
have been determined through previous study and record of prior
floods and are based upon channel flows and velocities.

The third direct cost considered is the damage to street and
utility crossings. These are also related to past flooding
events and realistic approximations of repair costs associated
with rebuilding and repairing utilities at washed out street
crossings.

These damages represent tangible or direct damages which can
be expressed in monetary terms. Also considered in the damage
evaluation are indirect damages which result from flooding.
Damages of this type generally include the added expense of
daily living and operation during the flood or flooding situa-
tion over and above the normal costs of living during a normal
or nonflooded period. Examples include the extra costs of
following a detour a considerably longer distance than the nor-
mally traveled route, paying for a motel for an evening or two
when the house is not in liveable condition, the loss of addi-
tional profit and taxes in a commercial establishment which
cannot open for a day or two as a result of flooding and other
damages of this type. The Soil Conservation Service in their
publication, Economics Guide for Watershed Protection and Flood
Prevention, March, 1964, relates these 1nd1rect damages as
usually 10% - 15% of normal residential direct damage; 15% to
20% of commercial and industrial area direct damages, and 15%
to 20% of the direct utility damage.

Damages not recognized in this analysis include the intangible
type which have a real value in satisfying human needs and
desires but are not fully measureable in monetary terms. Also,
the increase in value to goods or property resulting from the
improvements has not been considered. Primary examples of these
items include loss of life, damage or benefit to the environment
and the psychological or socia10gica1 effects of changing the
existing norm.

With all damages approximated, the average annual damage was
computed and converted to a present worth of damages utilizing
a present worth factor obtained from interest tables. The
present worth factor used in this study was 13.801 which is
characteristic of an investment at 7% interest rate over a 50-
year period. The average annual damage and present worth of
damages are shown in Table V for the various reaches. These
damage cost figures theoretically represent the total economic
burden of the existing flood plain which is susceptible to the
full range of flooding resulting from a low frequency storm
event through the 100-year event.

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