FLOOD04301

• County: Delta
• County: La Plata
• County: Gunnison
• Community: Pitkin, Delta, La Plata, Gunnison, & Routt County
• Basin: Western Slope
• Title: Appendix to 1993 Colorado Flood Report
• Date: 6/1/1994
• Prepared By: CWCB
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Documentation Report

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preparedness and emergency activities in the state. The State Engineer administers the state's
dam safety program. The CWCB is the state's floodplain management agency. If it becomes
necessary, the state agencies can contact federal agencies (FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers and the Soil Conservation Service) to solicit their assistance.

Assess Specific Potential Problems

Once the general nature of the problem facing a community has been established and contacts
with state agencies have been made, local officials can start to determine the specific problems
they might face. What specific areas of the community might be affected by flooding, what
bridges and roads would be threatened. would any public facilities like water plants or sewage
treatment plants be flooded? How deep might the water get, where might erosion be expected,
where might sandbags be needed? This specific assessment allows the community to target its
attention and its resources in those areas where they are needed without expending effort in
places where it is not needed.

Ori!anize a Local Response Team

In order to implement a local response a community will need a team of people working together
to accomplish the various tasks involved. Typically this team would include the floodplain
administrator. police and fire personnel, the road and bridge supervisor, the building official.
public works and/or engineering staff and someone with public information responsibilities. Each
of these people needs to know his or her piece of the puzzle and how it relates to other pieces.
They need to work as a unit rather than competing or freelancing. Most importantly they need
to know ahead of time what they will do.

Inform the Public

To avoid alarming citizens or leading them to believe that nobody is doing anything about the
flood threat, local officials should go through the above steps before embarking on a public
information campaign. Once the specific problems they may face have been identified and the
specific responsibilities of various agencies have been discussed, community officials can let
citizens know exactly what they should be concerned about and what is being done about it.
They can also let citizens know whether their property is threatened and what measures they can
take on their own or collectively.

Refine Your Response Plan As You Get More Data

At the beginning of each month the SCS prepares an updated snowpack report. As we have seen
this winter. a month can make a lot of difference in the snowmelt threat facing a community.
With March having been a relatively mild month, we can expect some of the readings to have
gone done between March I and April 1. Meanwhile local officials will have had a chance to
familiarize themselves more with their floodplain infonnation, allowing them to know better
where the problem areas are. They will have more knowledge of their own response capabilities
and shortcomings, they will know better what outside assistance is available, and they will have
had a chance to interact with their citizens. A!I of this information can go into refining the