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<br />PAST FLOODS <br /> <br />SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL FLOODS <br /> <br />The Rifle area is known to have a long history of snowmelt and <br />summer cloudburst floods, but I imited definitIve data on specific floods <br />are available. Damage from snowmelt floods On the Colorado River is <br />known to have occurred in the RIfle area in 1918, 1935, 1962, and 1965. <br />Damage from cloudburst floods occurred In the Rifle area in 1914, 1917, <br />1921 (July and August), 1929, 1930 (July and August), 1937, 1945, 1947, <br />1951, and 1963. The August 1930 flood Is reported to have been the <br />worst flood in Rifle history. <br /> <br />FLOOD RECORDS <br /> <br />Information on specific floods In the area is lImIted because of <br />the sma I I amount of streamflow data available. Historic flood informa- <br />tion presented in this report is derIved mainly from the files of the <br />Rifle Telegram. <br /> <br />FLOOD DESCRIPTIONS <br /> <br />Spring snowmelt floods on the Colorado River have caused extensive <br />streambank erosion in the Rifle area for many years. Floodflows have <br />caused the Colorado River to change course six times in the last 50 years <br />in this area. These channel changes and bank erosion have resulted in <br />the abandonment of agricultural lands which had been developed adjacent <br />to the Colorado River near Rifle. <br />Newspaper accounts indicate that cloudburst floods originating in <br />the drainage areas of Rifle and Government Creeks have damaged agri- <br />cultural areas to the north of Rifle and commercial establishments <br />and transportation facl I ities within the town. <br /> <br />15 <br />