FLOOD02603

• County: Garfield
• Community: Glenwood Springs
• Stream Name: Roaring Fork River
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Title: Debris Flow Costs & Inventory of City of Glenwood Springs Area July 10,1928 Flood Debris Flow
• Date: 5/1/1986
• Prepared For: Glenwood Springs
• Prepared By: Mount Sopris SCS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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Summer of 1981

The city had a reprieve from heavy storm damages until the summer of 1981,
when a series of afternoon thunderstorms moved into the valley and began its
cycle of mud and debris flows again.
Some things had changed during the four years between cloudburst generated
storms. Some of city personnel were newly hired so some clean-up was done
differently. The all-volunteer fire department had a paid chief, and mitigating
work, such as berms, had been done by some homeowners, diverting flows from
their property. However, this just changed the flow to someone else. Some
records were kept in different ways, but costs were still high.
Since the Glenwood Springs area has rock units of the Maroon Formation and
the Eagle Valley Evaporite, this settling causes frequent, large mud and debris
flows.
Soils formed from the Eagle Valley Evaporite absorb water easily and change
to thick slurries which are relatively mobile and flow to considerable distances
on debri s fans.
Maroon rocks decompose with weathering, forming accumulations of boulders,
smaller rock fragments, and silt, clayey silt and sand. Upon saturation and