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<br />United States and abroad. After the flood, Fort Collins has tried to focus beyond the <br />physical issues to recognize the multi-faceted losses and the ensuing grief experienced by <br />many people. Lessons are presented in the paper about complacency, protecting <br />vulnerable areas, flood frequency analysis, stress and trauma, the importance of <br />organizational mobilization, the vulnerability of universities, growth management in a <br />hazardous environment, mitigation versus response, communicating risk to officials and <br />the public, and handling large influxes of donations. <br /> <br />Introduction <br />On the evening ofJuly 28, 1997, an extreme flood disaster hit the Colorado community <br />of Fort Collins, Colorado. The storm produced the heaviest rains ever documented to <br />have fallen over an urbanized area in this state in the recorded history of Colorado. The <br />disaster will be remembered as one of the most memorable events of the 20th Century in <br />the City, and was quickly labeled a "SOD-year event," regardless of whether the term <br />applies. This urban flood event differed markedly from other famous floods in Colorado, <br />such as the Big Thompson River flash flood disaster that hit near Fort Collins in 1976, <br />and, based on media coverage, was certainly one of the major urban floods of recent <br />years in the United States, <br /> <br />This paper is offered as a post-flood analysis to provide a comprehensive view of the <br />causes, consequences, and lessons of this remarkable flood event. Rather than an in- <br />depth technical analysis of a single aspect, such as rainfall, runoff, or damages, the paper <br />takes a cross-cutting view of the flood emergency and provides a narrative, a data base, <br />and a set of "lessons learned," It includes the results of the seven authors' own studies <br />and analyses of the flood and a synthesis of information from the Flood '97 Conference, <br />an event held on November 4,1997 by Colorado State University's Water Center. <br /> <br />The questions that we will raise and attempt to answer about the flood fall within the <br />different fields of the authors, and include several different ways to look at flooding, For <br />example, in the realms of hydrology and hydraulics, the event was characterized as a <br />"SOD-year flood," but what is the basis for such claims, are they true, and is such a <br />characterization useful for planning for extreme urban floods such as this? In the realm <br />of risk, dollar damage during the flood was extraordinarily high, especially on the <br />Colorado State University campus. Given that previous large floods had occurred, how <br />did so much damage occur in an urban flooding situation, and can similar damages be <br />prevented in other places? From the viewpoint of emergency response, how effectively <br />did the community respond to the event? Were systems for emergency preparation and <br />response adequate? How could they be improved? What flood mitigation programs took <br />effect? How did they work? In terms of public involvement and citizen responses, what <br />were the emotional impacts of the flood? Did they affect the community in surprising <br />ways? If so, what were the surprises? Finally, what lessons can civil engineers and flood <br />specialists learn from such a severe flood event? <br /> <br />Figure I: Location Map <br /> <br />2 <br />