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(1) How did the state -- its agencies and its citizens -- per- form during the June floods? (2) What can the General Assembly do to improve the state's performance during flood disastel:s through the adoption of changes in cldministrative procedures and thl:ough statutory or consti tuti,)nal Ell1actments? (3) What can the state do to lessen the impact of future dis- Clsters? The following sections contain summaries of the major areas rl~viewed by the committee during the COUrlje of its meetings in attempting to arrive at answers to the questions resulting from the flood disasters. pisaster Operations All reports indicated tha1t the disaster operations wer'~ conduc- ted in commendable fashion by the state agencies concerned. The governor, the heads of state departments, and local officials com- mented favorably on the cooperation and assistance which they experi- Ell1ced during the time of emergency. Major problems were reported, however, with respect to communications and transportation. A need for more planning for disaster operations was also brought out during the committee's meetings. The area of communications represented the number one problem in the conduct of disaster operations at all governmental levels. Included in this area were reports of inaccurate or non-existent re- porting on water levels or flood crests; difficultiE!S in communicating between state and local officials carrying out disaster operations, as well as difficulties in knowing what others were doing within the same organizational level; and the inability in some cases of being able to sort fact from fiction from the various reports being received. To illustrate, an air lift operation was conducted to evacuate people supposedly stranded only to discover subsequently that an un- damaged road led into this area, and considerable time was also spent in tracking down rumors which in most instances proved to be unfounded. Once the flood hit, the mayor of Lamar reported, the local radio stations were disabled and he had no way to contact thE! people in the community. At one time the National Guard received a request far 325 men from the mayor of Englewood and about ten minutes later a separate request was received from the shllriff of Arapahoe County for 300 men; i.t was later discovered that these were the same requests. Closely related to the problem of connunicatians was the problem of transportation. State highways, county roads, and city streets were dealt a severe blow by the floods, and immedi~t~ restoration of major surface traffic routes and connecting links was the pr~nary con- cern of both state and local highway departments. The first p::oblem encountered involved traffic control and evacuation of stranded persons. Jlnather problem accompanying the floods was posed by sightseers, both before and after the floods arrived. In this connection, despite the fact that the powers of the State Patrol are essentially confined to highways, necessity dictated that state patrolmen order many curious .. 21 -