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<br />approximately 21,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). 'the measurement of these large floods was by <br />indirect methods since the gage was washed out and is, therefore, only a best estimate. <br /> <br />The earliest flood account, descn"bed by Ansel Watrous of the flood of 1864, describes the flood <br />as the "worst known by white men and that the water poured out of the banks of the stream and <br />inundated the valley from bluff to bluff with a torr<ent that carried everything not fIrmly attached <br />to the soil with it. On reaching the plains, the water spread out and submerged the bottom lands <br />from bluff to bluff to a depth of several feet." <br /> <br />The 1904 flood probably did the greatest financial damage. During this flood, approximately <br />150 houses were swept away, and all the bridges Were destroyed except one. It should be noted, <br />however, that the bridges and houses were not built to the same design standards as today. The <br />flood of May , 1904, was the greatest on the Cache La Poudre River for which definite evidence <br />is available. A newspaper account stated that the fust warning of danger that people had was <br />when a "wall of water 10 to 14 feet high burst out of the Poudre Canyon a couple of miles above <br />La Porte." Nearly $150,000 in damage occurred Within Larimer County. <br /> <br />Mr. Robert Strauss, a much respected resident whl) had lived near the bank of the Poudre River <br />since 1859, drowned in the 1904 flood. In additiOII, a seven-year old boy was swept to his death <br />when Dry Creek, a tributary of the Poudre, flooded during the same event. <br /> <br />Local resident accounts regarding the relative ma~tude of the flood of 1904 and that of 1864 is <br />conflicting. One report stated that people living in, the valley since 1859 reported that the flood of <br />1904 was about 1.5 feet higher than the flood of 1864. Another long time resident reported that <br />the flood of 1904 was greatly exceeded by the of 1864 and that, although the channel was wider <br />and carried more water in 1864 than in 1904, the 1l00d of1864 reached a higher point on his <br />property . <br /> <br />Most floods on the Cache La Poudre River in the plains area of the basin have caused damage to <br />crops, livestock, farm improvements, machinery, irrigation structures, and road and railroad <br />structures. Only the largest floods have caused damage to residential, commercia!, and industrial <br />property in Fort Collins. . <br /> <br />The record of past flood damages on the Poudre River does not accurately represent the current <br />flood threat to Fort Collins. A severe flood has not occurred in almost 90 years. The largest <br />floods since 1930 occurred in 1938, 1951, 1983, and 1995. <br /> <br />The peak of the 1938 flood approximately 6180 I::fs. A newspaper account of the flood of 1951 <br />stated that it was estimated by the district water commissioner to be about 8,000 cfs at Fort <br />Collins, however, the actual measurement at the mouth of the canyon was 5,600 cfs. <br /> <br />Newspaper accounts from 1961 also described h<eavy rainfall and flooding that cause the washout <br />of a portion of the roadbed under the Colorado and Southern Railroad track about 150 yards east <br /> <br />10 <br />