FLOOD03549

• County: Rio Blanco
• Community: Meeker, Town of
• Stream Name: White River
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Title: Floodplain Information Report
• Date: 6/1/1978
• Prepared For: Meeker, Rio Blanco County
• Prepared By: UDFCD
• Contract/PO #: &&
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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THE NIEEKER HERi\LD.

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VOfJ. I-NO. 2.

rmCE, TE~ GE~TS.

!1EEKEH. OOLO,. RATlJRDA Y, ArG. 2"2, 1885.

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"MEEKER HERALD. i
Mcck~r. Colorado. I
..,'.~.~~~==~~.'f
l'ATu.n~~Y~~~~~ _~_._=~ I
JAMES L VTTLE. Editor & Publ~~~~~ I
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EDIt.red In tbe pnswllk'c at M(~k('r. tUn Tnll.llCO I
l"ouoty. Colo., 8S second-d1Ul9 mllil matti-F.
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~O~~ N_l.t!~f?~_1

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181
Su1lthur on a 1.e..1.r.
A l1eavy body of water came down
~ulplmr c~k Monday nod almost.
ruined the sewer now being con-
structed on Second slree-t. What to do
wit.h Sulphur crtck is becoming as dif.
ficult of solution as Ute time-wonl ques-
tioo. "Who struck Billy Patterson it..

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00 'j'bursdav another cloudburst 0c-
curred on the same creek. and It causetl
the bi~~st torrent of water to pass
throuRb Meeker ever witnessed. Tbe
Second strt'et excavatioll wusn't large
enough to carry the water where the
town ditch Cros5e!J it, amI tbe latter in
torn oTerflo'Wed ib, banks ltilh damag-
ing results to the central portion of the
town. Tbe cellars and. Hrst floors of
several residents on I".uk u\'enue and.
neigbboring stre(llts w~re llo.>olleJ, and
muny <<tUdens were submerged. The
sewer on Second street was made U5e-
It-:>... :11111 ~r')pl:Hy nWI1t'I:t at the 111\\"('f
end Buffered considerably from the OVfif-
flow.
Ycstenlav aflemnon a lleav)' rain
brou1!ht another installment of water.
but its result '\\"38 confined to 3, sligbt
bre..'\k in the town ditch in the east part
. of town.
l"ursuant to call n public meetioK was
held at the C(lurt h(Jll!~e In.~t evening to
take some actiOll relative to rewedvin~
the Sulphur creek trouble. After dis.
cu~ion }'fes.o;rs. J. L. McHatton W.II.
Clark and A. Old land were appointed a
eommittee to investigate and report.

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. _ I . n T .-- ---- It was evident that aid was neces-
THv' ~DAY, JULY 15,1937.sary in removing ch;ldren and per-
'sonal property from the houses in this
. part of town. The fire siren was
",,,>undcd and despite the rain which
, -.vas powing down in town. many vol-
unteers turned, out to aid those in
'distress. 'Ihe Coleman borne on Mar-
- ket street had at least two feet of
water in the house and at the Stein-
- metz home on Water street the water
was even deeper. Much damage was
also done to the Van Cleave Auto
camp and several other houses in the
neighborhood were damaged by the
flood. Gardens were coVered with silt
tlnd debris. ruining them for this sea-
son.

THE MEEKER HERALD

JAMES LYTTLE:. EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR

Cloudburst Starts
Sulphur Creek
On Rampage

lSATuR.n.-\.Y. JULY 13. l'l~

Heavy Raioa

Beginning with last Friday. Meek-
I er and this part of White river valley
was visited with some of the hea~i~
est raille known t.o the history of the
commuDity.
"h8 bi~ rain occurred TUf'sday ev-
ening.. In the hills bact of towII and
in the Sulphur crepk basin. it poured
I down .11 though a elond' had bursL
A raKing torrent came down Sul~
, phur creek. lasting from about 7 to 8
o'clock. The deep, ravine-like creek,
sudden I." rose till it flowed oYer its
banks in the SlWdersoo Oeld. and io
! t.uro, t.he Smith ditch was fllled to
I overflowing in many places.
I Reaching tbe low flat. near the
J river, in the,ootheuh>-rn end of town,
I~ Sulphur spread out aud filled cellars
and tint ftoon of all hOUS8l1 in that
t 9f'ction of town. Fences were torn
down and gardens detortored, and
i many people loat nearly all their
! chickens.
I The main part of town W&8 ftooded
I by the overflow uf the Smith ditch.
The Meeker-Craig bridge at the
l8anderSOD ranch wu carried awa)' i
also the bridge and water main at tbe
I Henry corner of atarket and Second
.tree"".
; Sidewalk: were carried aWA)' all
{over town, amI. colIsidp.rable damage
. done.
All told it was the worst storm in
the history of )feeker.
1'ho danage in town was principal-.
! ly due to the fact that the town go.~:
I erumen.... of recent )-'ean. has allowed
. praeticall,.. all cuh'erts., running in
. the directiou of the river to be filled
up; lumce t.h(>fe was no way for thfl
water to l't;Cap,:-" othpr than to flf)tJd
t:t>lIars 8ud finit flmtrH of residellc6s.
and-in 801lle installCt's, busin~ss
I hOll8h&.
i This thing iilwuld be cemedit.>d be.
t fore allother such titorm breakti on
tht': tOwn.
On \Vedue&das evenintr. another
t big raiul!itorlU struck to...n, hut did
, not du II1I1("h da m...:;'!.
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Southeastern ".rt of Towu n~
F'U'e Alann Sounded to Summon
Aid for Those in Flood A_

The old axiom. "it De\.""er rains. but
what - it ~"6\1rs." (.....rtainly has proven
true the past week in an area com-
prising m.arly every part of Western
ColoradO. Anyone living in this area
would willingly agT".."t." that Old Pluv-
lu5 certainly has broken the drought
and is doing the job in a big WIlly.
Hardly a spot in all Western Colo-
rado but what has had just plenty of
moisture during the past week-in
many paris the rain has incre&ril!d to
cloudburst proportions and consider-
able damage bas resulted. Meeker 'bad
the first taste of cloudburst conditions
since 1918 when Sulphur Creek again
went on one of its periodical ram-
pages. Nenrly twt:nty years ago a
cloudburst struck the upper regions of
this a-eek which runs thru the east
part of Meeker and -=overed most of
the town with water ranging from. a
f~w inches to sevenl feet.
Friday afternoon of last week _
a re}Jitition of the flood of 1918, how-
ever it did not cover as much area of
the town but the part it did cover WBS
well watered. The cloudburst struck
some lhrt.'e or four miles up the creek
from town in the lK"ighbnrlu:KKl of the
G~~fi and Sexson ranches. doing some
damage to these two places_ As the
wail of water approached town it car-
ried with it much trash and brush
which had accumulated in its channel
for lhc~ past sev~ral years, Whrn
this debris bt..-.gan to lodge on the Main
street and Market st.ftet bridges it
backed up the waler until it was over
th(: <-'han::cl b&nks and pouring a
strrarr> of '\"a'ter two to three feet m>ep
ove-r the Lotthn1S in the oouUleClStf:rn
llilrt of town.

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-Thursday, Augu.t 8, 1957

The wooden bridge on Main street
was undermined and has been closed
to trani.c and will have to be ~built
if put into use. Tbe highway bridge
was not damaged b'.1t would have been
had the -storm l:--;Sted a few hours
mOTe. Again Sunday quite a wall of
water came down Sulphur creek but
the channel was clear and no damage
resulted.
Cloudbursts were common over the
entire county. Much damage has been
done to the roads and crops on Pice-
ance; several heavy floods coming
down from the Gerald Oldland ranch
east to the John Robinson place. Most
01 the ranchers have been fOrced to
come around by way of White River
C;ty to get to Meeker. Strawberry
creek repJrts the loss of, a bridge or
two as several water spouts have
come down. 'l11is is also true on the
Meeker-Buford road: the worst place
being between Elk <reek and Big
Beaver. On the railroad to the south
the trains have been running hit and
miss between the storms-Qne day the
tracks have been out and the next
day repaired to let traffic thro, The
worst stonns have been from Rifle to
Grand Valley.
While the rains have done consid-
erable damage to roads and to hay
that has been cut for .over a week"
they have done far more good than
hann, The rain is ge-neral and the dry
land pastures are going to be the best
in year.;. It will also help insure a
good St'"nmd cutting of ha~~ on ~ dry
lklld rancht..s.. The win~r rangp~ in
the westt-m part of the courity will be
nlUch better than in the past five
ye;,rs.

This year's weather continups to
"be unusual - unusually wet. The
past week we have had several
heavy rain ~torms in Meeker with
over an inch and a half of mois-
ture. Cloudbursts were reported
down the river where -considerable
. damage was done 'to hay and gr.<Jn
crops. Sunday evening we had a
'~\-"ere electrical stonn v.rith one bolt
of lightning striking in or near
i town. It was so near it shook our
I house and sparks flew from elec-
trical appliances. Others in town
reported the same effect. Then last
night it rained most of the night
,.;th heavy thunder and Hghtning,
The temperature for the week
reached a new high for the sum-
. mer with. thermometers registering
91. The low was 44. The moisture
is good for the range country but
is being detrimental to the harvest-
ing of hay and grain crops.