Laserfiche WebLink
<br />III. LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNME:NT ACTIONS <br />AND RESPONSE <br /> <br />As the spring 1994 snowmelt flood season approached, the Flood Control and Floodplain <br />Management Section of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) made basin by basin <br />flood threat assessments across Colorado, When snowpack averages (issued by the Natural <br />Resources Conservtaion Service, formerly the SCS) are above 150% of normal, the CWCB <br />identifies the drainage basin as having a high probability of snowmelt flooding, Few, if any, <br />drainage basins climbed above the 150% threshold, As snowmelt time began (early May), warm <br />temperatures were not sustained for long enough periods to cause large volumes of snowmelt <br />runoff to accumulate in streamcourses, Instead, May had several periods of cool weather, which <br />effectively moderated any snowmelt which had begun to increase in certain drainage basins. The <br />first two weeks of June also had several intermittent periods of cooler than normal weather, <br />thereby, moderating the last part of the snowmelt season significantly, All in all, the mountain <br />snowpack melted in a uniform manner and very little snowmelt flooding occuD'ed, statewide, <br /> <br />In early June, Colorado's thunderstorm season began in earnest. On June 3, a large, <br />persistent and slow-moving thunderstorm in Pueblo caused the largest dollar damages from <br />flooding in 1994, State and local government employees were out in force to assist in clean up <br />efforts, as well as develop options for residents to reduce future flood damages, City and state <br />road crews worked tirelessly to clean plugged sewers, streamcourses and debis-clogged roads <br />following the storm, Assistance was also provided to homeowners in the Lake Minnequa area <br />where flooding had its biggest impacts. <br /> <br />Then on June 6, Pueblo city officials, local drainage engineers from across Colorado and <br />representatives from the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Colorado Office of <br />Emergency Management (OEM) met with local homeowners who suffered flood damages, <br />Though direct financial assistance was not available to persons without nood insurance, this <br />"post-disaster nood mitigation workshop" provided homeowners wiith affordable techniques to <br />reduce future flood damages, <br /> <br />State and local government officials were involved in rescue and clean-up efforts <br />following the other nood events which occurred during 1994, Following the August flood event <br />in Lyons, representatives from the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Colorado Office <br />of Emergency Management (OEM) met with local homeowners who suffered flood damages, <br />As usual, direct financial assistance was not available to persons without flood insurance, <br />however, another "post-disaster flood mitigation workshop" again provided homeowners with <br />affordable techniques to reduce future flood damages, <br /> <br />12 <br />