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'1 fro r""&".-- ......., .-......... ....",.~~Jl'."\""~"""'.I_,. .. , ',........, The Denver Post Sun., July 26, 1981 31 Denver & the West c Ridin' the Range. . . . . Flood could happen again 32 32 . Five BY BETSY HOWARD Special to The Denn>r Pm1 years later, few FIVE YEARSagothisweek,a terrtf)'lllg wall of water roared down a 25-mlle Colo- rado canyon, leaving thosp cllngmg above th(' swollen banks of the Big Thompson River to unravel wreckage and piece together shat- terl'd dreams. The da7.ed sun.'wors of the Big Thompson nood and the stwmed Lar- Imer County officials trymg to help were confronted WIth anothpr frus- trating task - untangling federal rules for recoru.1ructlon aid. Those hurdles were overcome, and the task of rebUilding is almost com- piPIt'. Few traces remam of the nood which swepl away the lives of more than 14(1 tourists and canyon reSidents m Its turbid. boiling path on the eve- ningof Jut)' 31.1976. But weft' another such tragedy to occur today, it is doubtful the recov, erv would be as swift. and financial aid could be targeted for much differ. ",nt purposes - relocal111g thE' Survl. vors, not helpmg them rebuild. .Iohn Hensley, dire<-tor of emergen- cy management for l..arimer County, explams why. He pomts 10 a growing school of thought that no aid might be thE' best aid. "IF YOU GIVE a lot of relief to people U1 a danger area. they tend to stay. It usually pays to mow them out." That allitude IS one COWllies may be forC'E'd to consider. In 1976, the county qualified for 100 percent rrderal aid after President Gerald Ford declared lhe canyon a disa....1er area. today, Congress requires that coun- ties foot one-fourth ot the relief bill. and in two years, that portion may be hiked to 50 percent, HeIlSley notes. With a Lanmer County budget duro ing the flood year of only $17 million, the flfUlI $53 million bill for recon- struction and relocation would ha....e bE>en far out of reach. "'Ive years after the tragedy, the bodies of five victims still havl'n't bE>en recovered. In two Yl'ars, when those \1ctuns of- ficially are listed as dettd, their names om son traces remam of the terrifying flood which , swept away more than 140 lives away homes and addmg to the death toll. l':venluaUy, $S3 million ill aid - 9lI percent of it federal - was amassed to help relocate reSidents and rebuild. Vtrlually all of lhe mont'Y has been spent. TilE ONLY SIGNS lJl the Big Thompson Canyon of a disaster on the e....ening of July 31, 1976, are captured III the scrapbooks of residents who &'UI"\ived. For residents who had close calls and didn't lose their homes, memories are colored wtth a pioneering adven. ture of doing without electricity and roads for weeks. for others, howe\o'er, the memories are much more painful. Some lost all their possessions. Others 1rn.1 wives. husbands, ctuldren and relatives. Officials say menlal health prob- lems for some survivors still linger in the form of depression and also uncer. tainty for those whose loved ones' bodies still are missing. "You'll talk to people who will say, 'Gee, they've never found my mother,' "emerge~ cy d1rector HeIlSley said. will hike \0 144 the offlctal death toll rrom one of Colorado's worst natural disasters. Ft'd by lip to a foot of ram ill rour hours, the flood battert'd 15 miles of hIghway beyond recogrution, smashed 3'1 bndges and da.'1hed apart 70 homes. "WE W~RE RIGUr square In the tmddle of It," recalls Paul GrifflOl, 81, who now lives tn Boulder. "One thing, it sure made a ChrtstJan out of me. I was already. but you know what I mean. (The flood) lifted our home up and pushed it toward the river, and like a big hand, lifted it up and put it back where it belonged. "We were watching Ole games up ill Canada - the Olympic games. AU of a sudden, all the electricity went off. I went to the tront door. My goodness, it lookl"d like Niagara t'a1ls in front of the hOIL<ie and back - both." Damage wasn't limited to the can. yon, dominated by U.S. 34 - the main artery for tourists flocking from Love- land on the east. west to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Angry waters also roared down the north fork or the Big Thompson, rip- pmg apart a ('(Iunty Mad, sweeping But In appearance, the canyon has bounced back. MA~Y TOURISTS ARE surprised to hear or the disaster that dominated thew hometown newspapers ror sever. al da\'s m the summer of 1976. The lw~1~, shattered homes lying at rak- ish angles were hauled away long ago. So were the dozens of automobiles perched on rocks and hidden in rub- ble. Other changes aren't as obvious. But they are more lmportant to the people who chose to return to the beautiful canyon. Since the flood wa- ters fffeded, changes have been made to prevent another Big ThomI' son disaster. County officials almost l.mmediate- Iy slapped a six-month moratorium on rebuilding structures which suffered more than 50 percent damage. The county then initiated a study or the floodplain. The study determined can. yon areas that would be endangered by a flood of the magnitude projected to occur an average of every 100 years. But the disaster that hit July 31 had the force of a 3>>year flood. When the commissioners prohibited mrn.1 construction in the floodplain six months later. about 70 families whose homes were swept away weren't al.. lowed to rebuild on their homesites. l':XCEPTIONS WERE MADE for at least three families whose homes were carried away by the waters but who wanted to rebuild in the path of a loo..year floodplain. Thtrty other homeowners also were allowed to rebuild in the l00-vear floodplain because their homes' had sustained less than 50 percent damage from the 33().year flood, according to Rex Burns., senior planner in the Lar. imer County planning and zoning de. partment. Officials found that the govern- ment's goal of protecting lire clashed wiOl emotional needs of sUIVivors. "It wu, t '-j'oldgm!'TIt tall." :>;lJ:: County Commissioner Nona TIlayer. j'7 who won offtce six months after the ~"'_ disaster. She had become involved in 11'", purswng aid long before she was in. stalled, An intense. soft.spoken, peUte brunette, Thayer explained why the exceptions were made as she sat in her sun-filled first.noor office at the county courthouse in Fort Collins. just 15 miles up Interstate Z5 from the Big Thompson. "Leroy Graham lost his wile. daughter-in-law and two grandchil- dren. Still. he wanted to live there." she said. "It's not a very rational situ- ation, but it would take a callous per- son to throw someone like that out." THE REQUESTS for exemptions were reviewed by the county's Flood Review Board, made up of profession- al engineers, Thayer said. She noted !hat- the board reqUired homeowners to agree to elevate structures and do additional flood-proofing. Next, the county used $1.8 million from state, regional and federal agen- cies to buy parcel3 of land from 94 property owners who weren't allowed to rebuild or who owned undeveloped land in the floodplain. The Small Business Administration also provided 300 loaruo to full-time canyon residents to help rebuild homes and businesses in the canyon but outside the noodplain. The federal money didn't come without a fight. At first the request was denied. but after pressure from the Colorado congressional delega- tion, most of the money sought was delivered - 17 months after the disa.s- ter - a delay_ that angered Thayer. "The biggest. most inhuman thing was the delays," she said. "It was a long time before we cOuld move ahead" to buy the land. "Maybe the nood victims didn't think. I was as compassionate as I should have been," Thayer said. "But w~.,........ul1n'1 havp fMtt,.,n thfo ,1111'1" if- qWSll10n QK.lney without the tOG-year floodplain and otbor regulations." PLANNER BURNS ESTIMATES the county owns only 80 percent or the flood-prone but otherwise buildable property. The rest., wtth tlle exception ot a'few parcels of state land, remains tn private bands - those of homeown. ers allowed to rebuild in the flood. plain. "Most of the properties that were flood-prone were washed away." he said quietly. The two-lane federal highway called U.S. 34 which hugs the canyon walls as it curves its way from Love- land to Estes Park cost $22.5 million in federal money to rebuild. Another flood the magnitude of the 1976 tragedy could wreck at least part of the expensive new highway. concedes Dwight Bower. District 4 en- gineer for the Colorado Department of Highways. Roads wtthin the canyon were re- built only to withstand tlle force or a tOO-year nood, not a 3>>year flood such as the 1976 high water. "If it (the flood) Is larger than a Continued on page 32. TOr.,lEfT, Tall gran grows around a granite memorial a~d a boulder which slid down the hills of the Big Tli"ompSl?n Canyon during the flood. TOP RIGHT: lor- inf,r County Comminioner Nona Thayer. Elected co~: m~s"ioner in JonlJOry 1977, she had to cope with the problems of go"in9 aid for the disaster survivors. ~..~ 'Wf1"'l,~- . ". . '> .'