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<br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />TABLE 1 ' SUMMARY OF DISCHARGES <br />AR~N~Sm~R&ffimU~m~ <br /> <br /> <br />Detailed information on floods before the turn of the century is limited, <br />Information on past flooding is based on newspaper accounts and interviews <br />with longtime residents of the area. Large floods occurred at Canon City in <br />1909,1921,1933,1941,1948,1949,1957. and 1965. Peak discharges for <br />these historic flood events were all less than the 100'year flood peak <br />discharge, as predicted by the hydrologic analysis used for the Canon City <br />Flood Insurance Study (Reference 2). These floods have caused major <br />damage, disrupting highway and railroad traffic and communication services, <br />drowned livestock, destroyed agricultural lands, roads, bridges, and <br />buildings. Several lives have been lost and numerous others injured. <br /> <br />The flood of August 1921, which registered the highest flood flows <br />ever at Canon City caused the most damage downstream of Canon City. The <br />river reached a discharge of 19,000 cfs, flooding many streets and also <br />washing out many bridges. The railroad through the Royal Gorge and Canon <br />City has been washed out or damaged in the floods of 1909, 1933, 1941, <br />1947. and 1965. In all of the mentioned floods. many bridges were lost and <br />large acreage were inundated as in the flood of 1957, when 150 to 200 acres <br />of land between Canon City and Florence were under water. Figure 1 shown <br />on page 4 are flood photographs from the year 1909, Figure 2 on page 5 are <br />photographs of the Arkansas River gage. Table 2 shown on page 6 presents <br />the peak discharges and stages recorded at the Canon City gage for the <br />Arkansas River. Based on the numbers presented, it is reasonable to expect <br />large floods will occur in the future on the Arkansas River in the Canon City, <br />Colorado area. <br /> <br />3 <br />