FLOOD02102

• County: Statewide
• Title: Floods of June 1965 in Arkansas River Basin, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico
• Date: 1/1/1974
• Prepared For: Arkansas River Basin
• Prepared By: USGS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Documentation Report

06

FLOODS OF 1965 IN THE UNITED STATES

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. June 1965 floods in
Arkanw River basin

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DRAINAGE AREA, IN SQUARE MILES

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FIGURE 1. - Maximum discharges in relation to drainage area.

COMPARISON BY FREQUENCY RELATIONS

Regional flood-frequency relations cannot be used directly to compare
the relative magnitude of extremely outstanding floods (those with
recurrence intervals greater than 50 yr) in the Arkansas River basin because
the relations have been defined only up to the 50,year recurrence interval
(Patterson, 1964). Also, the relations have not been defined for small
drainage basins because of insufficient peak-flow data. The continuing
collection of peak,flow data will eventually provide information to extend
the relations to greater recurrence intervals and to define the relations for
small drainage basins.
Regardless of the inadequacies in the present flood-frequency relations,
they must be used in some manner by planners in protective design. One
such manner is by comparison with the 50-year flood from the frequency
relations. The 1965 floods in the Arkansas River basin equalled or exceeded
the 50-year flood at many sites; at some, by many times. For example, the
peak discharges of Clay Creek near Lamar, Colo., Jimmy Camp Creek
near Fountain, Colo., and Chase Canyon near Cimarron, N. Mex., were 30,
30, and 20 times those of the 50-year floods, respectively. Of the 131 sites
where peak discharges were determined, at least 47 had discharges equal to,
or greater than, that of the 50,year flood. At 40 sites on small drainage
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