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<br />As the flood crest proceeded down East Plum Creek through
<br />Larkspur, railroad and highway grades and bridges were ripped out,
<br />inundating the flood plain and farm and road equipment as it tore into
<br />Castle Rock. At Castle Rock, homes, house trailers, trucks and cars
<br />were added to the flood crests of West Plum Creek and the South Platte
<br />River which, as it approached Littleton, was estimated at 200 feet
<br />wide and 20 feet high, moving at ten miles an hour. Combined flows in
<br />the South Platte River were estimated at between 36,000 and 44,000
<br />cubic feet per second when it hit the low-lying areas of Littleton about
<br />9:30 p.m. the night of June 16th.
<br />
<br />By this time, the people in the lower sections in Littleton had
<br />been evacuated, but the flood-swollen river swept up countless house
<br />trailers, horse trailers, cars, homes, and business properties. This
<br />debris is believed to have at least doubled the flood crest and was
<br />responsible for battering away several bridges downstream as the rush-
<br />ing water continued through the Denver area. For the next four to five
<br />hours, flood waters tumbled and roared, wiping out or covering all of
<br />the flood-plain areas from Littleton to the 15th Street Viaduct in west
<br />Denver. All of the highway and railroad bridges and most of the water,
<br />sewer, power, and telephone utilities were knocked out. Power shorts
<br />caused numerous fires that could not be reached, much less fought, by
<br />men and equipment.
<br />
<br />While the flood devastation was descending on Metropolitan
<br />Denver, the adjacent stream to the east, Cherry Creek, was flowing ap-
<br />proximately 58,000 cubic feet per second into the Cherry Creek Reser-
<br />voir and overnight the reservoir level rose 15 feet, storing some
<br />15,000 acre feet of flood inflow. Had the Cherry Creek Dam and Reser-
<br />voir not been constructed, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that
<br />the flood discharge from Cherry Creek combined with the discharge from
<br />Plum Creek would have produced a peak discharge on the South Platte
<br />River in central Denver of approximately 65,000 cubic feet per second,
<br />or almost twice as much as the actual flood peak, and would have
<br />caused an additional 130 millions of dollars in damages.
<br />
<br />Further to the east, Sand Creek, together with Tollgate Creek,
<br />caused substantial damage through the north part of Aurora and Commerce
<br />City, but this water reached the South Platte River and was dispersed
<br />downstream hours before the Plum Creek flood crest hit Denver. The
<br />flood damages downriver from Commerce City, though high, would have
<br />been of a decreasing nature except for the rains occurring on Thursday,
<br />June 17th.
<br />
<br />Rains continued to fall, swelling the stream flow in tributaries
<br />of the South Platte River to the east and to the north of Denver. The
<br />West Middle and East Bijou Creeks, with estimated peaks of 70,000 cubic
<br />feet per second on June 16th and 200,000 cubic feet per second on the
<br />18th at Wiggins, together with Beaver and Badger Creeks, produced heavy
<br />damages to the towns of Agate, Wiggins, Deer Trail, and Byers while
<br />taking out all of the county, state, and federal roads and railroads on
<br />their march to join the flood crest on the South Platte River in the
<br />vicinity of Fort Morgan on Friday, June 18th.
<br />
<br />About noon on Fri.day, Fort Morgan and Brush were isolated ex-
<br />cept by air and water by flood crests 30 feet high, covering up to
<br />three miles in width, with an estimated peak flow of 100,000 cubic feet
<br />
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