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1929 Flood Event - July 26-27 - Ouray, Colorado Person Interviewed: Verena Jacobson, age 91 Location of Interview: 344 5th Street, Ouray, CO Age at time of 1929 event: 21 Lifetime Resident of Ouray Interview team: Larry Lang, CWCB; Carolyn Adams, CWCB; Colleen Bixler, City Clerk Experiences during the flood event: . Working at the Variety Store at the time of the event. . Left for work at 4pm when rain started . Lived by Cascade Creek near the school at the time . Noticed white sheet over the Amphitheater when the rain started . Looked up at Cascade Creek and saw water shooting straight out from the second falls . Two homes (one-story) at the base of the canyon were completely buried . One neighbor's two-story house had mud and water in the basement and first floor, only a staircase kept debris from knocking down the exterior wall. th th . Cascade creek ran down to the Uncompahgre on 7 & 8 Avenues, then ran out of gas . Observed that the first half of the flood surge carried debris, the 2nd half looked like hot chocolate. . Debris on Main St. were maybe a foot deep, while around 15 to 20 feet deep at the mouth of the canyon . The 1929 event was the worst flood on Cascade Creek . Floods always cover one area or another, but never the entire town all at once Quotes: . The flood sounded like "an explosion. The water tends to go straight." . "This house never flooded. There was some water on 4th Ave. over the past 100 years." . "The velocity is much too fast to go sideways." . "Skyrocket Creek had the same problems as Cascade Creek." Summary 1) There was an explosion sound at the beginning of the event, and water was seen to shoot straight out from the second falls of Cascade Creek. 2) Debris comes into the city during the beginning of the flood event. 3) Floodwaters look like hot chocolate during the last 1/2 of the event. 4) The velocities are very fast. 5) The floodwaters and debris always take a straight path to the Uncompahgre River.