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<br />~ <br />. <br /> <br />c. East of metropolitan Denver, the storm pattern extended over <br />Kiowa", Conunanche, BiJ ou, Beaver, and Badger Creeks. The storm which <br />occurred over BiJou Creek and adjacent watersheds' centered principally <br />over the upper BiJou Creek basin. The resultant flooding exceeded all <br />previous records in area flooded, peak discharges, and flood damages. <br />Interstate highway and other major highway bridges were destroyed. <br />The business sections of the towns of Byers and Deer Trail were almost <br />completely destroyed. The peak discharge of the BiJou Creek flood, <br />estimated at an unprecedented 466,000 cubic feet per second, entered <br />the South Platte River Just above Fort Morgan, 'Colorado, and caused <br />extensive flooding and damage as far as the Junction with the Platte <br />River some 190 miles downstream. Overall, the floods during the period <br />14 June through 22 June, inundated an estimated 252,925 acres along <br />1,200 stream miles under flood. The basin streams in flood, and a <br />schematic diagram of peak discharges, are illustrated on plates 5 <br />and 6, respectively. General flood outlines of the South Platte River <br />and its tributaries, and high water marks for the metropolitan reaches <br />on the South Platte River and Sand and Toll Gate Creeks are included <br />in the appendix to this report. Photos of selected flood scenes also <br />are included in the appendix. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />d. Thirteen lives were lost in the South Platte River basin, <br />including four on Plum Creek, three on the Cache LaPoudre River, two <br />on BiJou Creek, two on Beaver Creek, and one each on Cherry Creek <br />and the Big Thompson River. <br /> <br />2l . FLOOD DAMAGES PREVENTED <br /> <br />a. General. Federal flood control improvements located in the <br />South Platte River basin in the areas of the June 1965 flood runoff <br />include the Corps of Engineers' Cherry Creek Dam on Cherry Creek and <br />the Soil Conservation Service's watershed projects in the upper <br />Cherry Creek basin and the Kiowa Creek basin. <br /> <br />b. Cherry Creek Dam and Reservoir. <br /> <br />(1) During the evening and night of 16 June 1965, the Cherry <br />Creek Reservoir impounded a flood which had a peak inflow of 58,'000 <br />cubic feet per second and a volume of 16,000 acre-feet. The peak <br />discharge entered the reservoir at 7:30 p.m. on 16 June. Had the dam <br />not been constructed, this discharge would'have continued downstream, <br />overflowing approximately 12 miles of Cherry Creek channel through <br />a heavily developed area' of Denver. Moreover, this flood would have <br />Joined the flood on the South Platte River which had originated on <br />Plum Creek, and would have raised flood stages upstream and downstream <br />of the confluence of Cherry Creek. The flood originating on Plum <br />Creek caused a peak discharge in the South Platte River at the <br />Denver gage of 40,300 cubic feet per second. The combination of this <br /> <br />12 <br />