Laserfiche WebLink
<br />velocities ranged from 3,3 to 12.6 feet per second, Traveltimes of the flood <br />were determined from eyewitness accounts. The leading flood wave took 3.28 <br />hours to travel 12,5 miles (average 3,8 miles per hour). Flood peaks were 2.1 <br />to 30 times the 500-year flood for selected locations along the flood path. <br />Geomorphic and sedimentologic evidence suggest that it probably was the <br />largest flood in these basins, at least since the retreat of the glaciers <br />several thousands of years ago, <br /> <br />Geomorphic effects of the flood resulting from the dam failures were <br />profound. Channels were widened tens of feet and scoured from 5 to 50 feet <br />locally. In the Roaring River valley, alternate river reaches were either <br />scoured or filled, depending on valley slope. Generally, reaches steeper than <br />7 percent were scoured, and reaches less than 7 percent were filled. In the <br />Roaring River, 56 percent of the channel was scoured, some by as much as <br />50 feet, and 44 percent was filled with coarse sediments, 2 to 8 feet thick, <br /> <br />An alluvial fan of 42,3 acres, containing 364,600 cubic yards of materi- <br />al, was deposited at the mouth of the Roaring River. The fan has a maximum <br />thi ckness of 44 feet and an average thi ckness of 5.3 feet, The 1 argest <br />boulder known to have moved in the flood, 14x17.5x21 feet and weighing an <br />est i mated 452 tons, was located on the all uvi a 1 fan. Down the flow axi s, <br />average particle size changes from 7,5-foot boulders to fine sand and silt in <br />a distance of 1,900 feet. The alluvial fan dammed the Fall River, forming a <br />lake of 17 acres upstream from the fan. <br /> <br />Satisfactory results were obtained from the dam-break model, but not <br />without significant difficulties in proper operation of the model. To cali- <br />brate the mode 1, Manni ng n-va 1 ues between 0.1 and 0.2, or an average of 78 <br />percent greater than field-selected values, were required; subcritical flow <br />was verified. The occurrence of numerous debris dams caused localized <br />backwater, resulting in predominantly subcritical flow. However, when these <br />debris dams broke, flow probably was supercritical for a short distance until <br />another debris dam formed. Without the extensive calibration of the model and <br />the assumption of subcritical flow, results would have been significantly <br />different, <br /> <br />Peak discharges from dam-break modeling reflect water-only discharges; <br />total discharge may have been considerably higher on the Roaring River and on <br />the Fall River immediately downstream from Cascade Lake dam from sediment and <br />debris, At Horseshoe Falls and for a short reach downstream from Cascade Lake <br />dam, geomorphic and sedimentologic evidence indicates the flow temporarily <br />became a debris torrent, or a coarse-grained, organic, and water-rich type of <br />debri s flow, The sedi ment and debri s may have bul ked the peak water flow by <br />50 to 60 percenL The range of di fference of observed and modeled peak <br />discharges varied from -3,200 cubic feet per second to 600 cubic feet per <br />second. The range of difference of observed and modeled maximum flood depth <br />was -1. 3 to 2.6 feet and averaged 1. 0 foot. The range of difference of <br />observed and modeled leading edge of traveltime was -0,4 and 0.15 hour. <br /> <br />\ <br />I, <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Comparisons were made for hypothetical breach widths of (1) 25 feet and <br />(2) 200 feet. They were compared with model results of the actual breach <br />width of 55 feet: <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />~. <br />