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D2 FLOODS OF 1965 IN THE UNITED STATES around the house. It started coming in under the door and I knew it was going to be bad, but by then it was too late to get out. I tried to call the sheriff and I talked to someone who couldn't understand who I was, but I told him'" *' '" that I needed some help to get out. '" '" '" When I placed the phone back on the stand, I was in water almost up to my waist. '" '" '" My little dog was in the bedroom and I saw him swimming trying to reach me. Right then with the water pouring in and the noise and everything, I really thought I was a goner. I put my dog on the bed and I got up there too. ] held tight on the head of the bed and it started jumping around, floating here and there. The water just kept coming in and filling things up. I was afraid it would get so high I would drown. Then a big wardrobe fell over right on the bed. . .. . I put the dog on top of it and crawled up there to get higher, but I kept a tight hold on the bed end. Just about then, when I thought the water was going to fill the whole house, a part of the wall right in the bedroom broke, and then water was running out as fast as it ran in. I could hear windows breaking and doors were crashing and furniture was swimming around. When the wall broke out I thought maybe I can still save myself after all. . . .. I began to get awful cold and was shivering wet. So was my little dog. It smelled awful, that mud and dirt in the water. I saw four men on the railroad tracks watching the house and I saw a car stop. Pretty soon a crowd began to gather. .... There was a big white scarf on the chiffonier.... I yelled to them, whoever is out there I know you're trying to help me out, but don't try 'tit the water goes down, I'm allright .. . . I used a stick to help myself walk to the back door as the water was going down. I saw Fred- dy Gonzales coming in that maintainer and I thought oh, God bless them, I'm saved now. .. .. When we got over to the road and up to the store, it looked like a funeral with all of those cars, and I guess it could have been mine. Experiences such as this one, which was related by a 75-year old resident of Starkville, Colo., were common in June 1965. Some ended tragically with loss of life in addition to great material loss. Streamflows are termed "floods" under varying circumstances, and they need not necessarily be great in terms of discharge. According to "Webster's New International Dictionary," second edition, unabridged, a flood is "a great flow of water; a body of moving water; the flowing stream, as of a river; esp., a body of water rising, swelling, and overflowing land; a deluge; a freshet." Langbein and Iseri (1960) quoted three definitions: "An overflow or inundation that comes from a river or other body of water and causes or threatens damage." "A relatively high streamflow overtopping the natural or artificial banks in any reach of a stream. H "A relatively high flow as measured by either gage height or discharge quantity. " The floods of June 1965 in the Arkansas River basin in Colorado, Kan- sas, and New Mexico met most of the definitions quoted above. Adjectives such as incredible, devastating, and catastrophic were used justifiably. However, one adjective, unprecedented, may have been overused. Follans- bee and Sawyer (1948) gave accounts of outstanding floods in the Arkansas River basin in Colorado. Their descriptions, based on "fourth-hand" infor- mation or even Indian legend, depict floods which "covered the bottom lands near the present town of Las Animas to a depth of about 15 feet" in