FLOOD03304 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The progress of the storm down the valley caused the resu~ing floods on many of the tributary streams to reach Pueblo at nearly the same time. bringing about there the greatest flood of record, The Geological Survey made an investigation of this flood. and published a detailed report, The peak discharge at Pueblo. as determined by slope-area measurement. was found to be 103.000 cis. and the total discharge of the main flood at that point. less than 90.000 acre-feet. After the flood of 1921 the State Legislature enacted the Conservancy Districl law, which enabled various interest$ in t~le Arkansas Valley to organize the Pueblo Conservancy District, This district constructed a detention reservoir 10 miles above Pueblo, which was designed to reduce a discharge of 100.000 cfs, Channel changes in Pueblo were designed to carry. without overflow, a flood discharge of 125.000 c;fs and thus to provide for a flood flow of 25.000 cis originating below the reservoir. As floods on the Purgatoire Fliver are necessarily a source of floods on the Arkansas River below the mouth of that tributary. the flood of 1921 was not so greatly in excess of previous floods on that section of the river as the previous floods above the mouth of the Purgatoire River, In fact the peak discharge of the flood of 1908 on the Arkansas River at Holly was 136.000 cis, whereas the peak discharge in 1921 at Holly, when the Purgatoire River was not at flood stage, was only 120,000 cfs, Flood of 1929, The flood of the Purgatoire River, August 7. 1929, had a peak discharge of 52.800 cfs at the mouth and caused a peak discharge of 45.300 cfs on the Arkansas River at Lamar, The discharge from Purgatoire River was probably augmented by the rainfall that was general over the Arkansas Basin, Flood of 1944. The flood of July 4. 1944. on Wilson Creek, a tributary of Oil Creek, caused a flood in the Arkansas River below the mouth of Oil Creek, At the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co:s diversion dam. 3 miles west of Florence, the crest arrived at 12:45 a.m" July 5, and lasted about 30 minutes. Its discharge was computed as about 19.000 cfs by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. As the flood proceeded downstream its peak was reduced to 9,720 cfs (4:15 a,m,) at the Portland gaging station, 9 miles downstream, and to 5,980 cfs (8:15 a,m.) at the Pueblo station. 24 miles farther downstream, 4.2.2 FOUNTAIN CREEK Following are descriptions of known large floods that have occurred on Fountain Creek in the vicinity of Colorado springs, including excerpts from locally published news accounts, Flood of Julv 1885, Produced by a waterspout-type storm that reportedly burst just north of the Colorado College in Colorado Springs, torrential rainfall resu~Eld in initial flooding on the Monument Creek and Shooks Run tributary streams, According to the Colorado Springs Gazette on July 26, 1885: "In every respect, it was one of the most Colorado Flood Hydrology Manual 4.27 CFWT