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- - -~ - ~ .... ..~~. .::-.; 1 - '''" .:;.-~ ~ - ,.... .., '" - ."" ~. ~ '.. ".", . . .". . ,- .".;. .-- - ~ " ~~. ""\ .. .. ",." :Jo'--": ,'~.t- . - .... -' ~ ' ._~~. '" ;;,~ ~~ ~.. t. . ,,,"" . -~'.';~ '" L . - t".,,,. i',:" _'. , _~ ~ l, Go/Or..." photo by JOIP_, Delbert and Odessa Kline look over where their home used to be before the flood - August 1976 Fort Collins Coloradoan 11 The human element and the flash flood By EARL WIL'!ON For the Cbloradoan In the canyon of the North Fork of the Btg Thompson River the devastating flash flood of July 31 affected many people many ways. Depending on circumstances of location some residents escaped unscathed; others were laced with the monumental task of cleaning and rebuilding while sWJ others walked into the canyon to see a terrible empUnell8 where their homes once were. And stories of near misses from death or injury go on almost without end. 'There were almost as many tales of neighbors helping neighbors and strangers. Oll1e McKeehan, proprietor of Rockbrook Musewn about five miles upstream from Drake walked In to his stlted, water-soaked and badly damaged store with two of his family. Some windows were broken out on the north side of the buUdJng. On the west or upstream side doors and windows were broken out allowing debris, sUt and rocks entry on the crest of the waters. Over- stuffed turn1ture in what had been his living room was dank and reeked the odor of dirty water. In the store section of the building some few artifacts, merchandise and antiques stood intact, now almost out of place in the wreckage, on shelves along the front windows. McKeehan was working steadily, slowly, carrying out debris and an unseen helper was shoveling sut out of a front window. The pile of saJ'ld was growing steadily. There was no frantic, furious movement in their labor, only the same dogged determination seen in numbers of other people who had anything left to "'vag<. "I just don't have time to talk," McKeehan declared not unkindly. "I've been talking to Bureau of Reclamation people and I>thers and it's taking up too much of my time. I don't have much help and want to get done." "When do you estimate being back in business?" "I don't have any Idea," he said. "AU I want to do now Is to get the 14 years of work was erased in just hours EDITOR'S NOTE: F.arl WUMlrI. outdoor wrl\er tor the Coloradoan. and ilbotopapher Joe No\'oiby worked their way down the Btr ThompltOD and North Fork canyons the Saturday toUowlnr the July 31 flood. 1bI1!I wu one of the lntlerneWl U1a\ WUMln conduded durtnr the trip. AbOut two and one-quarter mUes down the North Fork canyon from the hamlet of Glen Haven a ,mall, comfortable frame cabin once stood serenely in the 8hadow of a l!I08.rtng, rock outcropping. The river, alter followIng the edge of a small meadow 8wept agalnat the foot of the outcropping and over the years a deep pool had been scooped out by the acUon of the water, In the cool depth8 of the pool trout found tood and a haven from warm summer days and frigid winter ntghta. "It wu a great t1ahing hole," Delbert Kline aa.ld. WIth 118 back door practically on the north edge of the pool and 118 front door ap- proximately 76 teet from the road that ran down the canyon at the tront edge of the lawn, the cabin sat u in the emall end ot a tunnel. North of the road the opposite 81de of the. canyon rose to dl.l:zying helgh18, There WIUl a emall toot bridge behind the cabin which perm1tted acceell to the IIOUth aide of the North Fork. It wu an Idyl1C 8etUng and the cabin had been there for If, yeare. It wu bunt by Delbert and Odellaa KUne, former addre" Box 186, Drake, Colorado. ExpecUng nothing more than the uaual weekend, the KlIne', acUvtUes were the normal rouUne of ret1red Uving In a place auch aa the IInug cabin on the North Fork. A generous supply of ttrewood was cut and l!Itacked against the coming cool weather, in a read11y acceaalble place and the fref!zer had jUllt been filled with cuts of frellh beef. A8 in many other casu a quirk of clr. cumstance interferred in the KlIne'e Uves - and th08l of thetr daughter Un and her husband Howard McFarland. hup, OIlI..c,ropplnf,ol rock., (It w&a after we exchanged greetings and were offered a drInk from the water jug the KUnes were carrying that we knew who they were.) Their IIOlI Bob wae wtth them. Pleasant, compoeed people, KlIne had a day.pack etrapped on hil back and they had walked from Glen Haven. "We had a home there," Delbert Kline said, gloUlturtng vaguely acrou the river. "Where?" "There _ right over there," Kline replied alm08t lmpatlenUy. "That's the eepUc tank there," polnUngto a ahort, cyllndrlCaleecUon of concrete, almllar to thoee Ul!led In lIewers, "And we used to have a foot bridge over there," Long before the evenlng of July 81 the tetephone rang at the Kllne cabin. It was LIn calling from Sterling, Colo. wanting to know If It would be all right If they drove to the North Fork cabin tor a weekend visit. "No," her daddy repl1ed, "I th1nk your mother and 1 would like to drive over there for a change." So it was that on the night ot the 31et Delbert and Odeua Kline were enjoying a famUy visit in Sterl1ng while forces went buUdIng over the mountains to release torrenta of rain on the North Fork and Big Thompson canyona. Had they decided in favor of their daughter v1atUng them an ugly chance loomed that additional staUsUCII relating to flood caaualUel!l would have been recorded. Novotny &lid I gaped in aston1ahment. We had noticed the length or concrete pIpe lying In the river bed just off the edge of the wallhed-out road on our walk down the canyon; otherwtlle the area looked like any area along a 8tream that had been washed over with fiood waters. There was no eem- blance of where a houae had been; no taun- daUon, no wreckage, no IIlgn of human hab1taUon. Only lltark, barren empUneaa lying bleak in the afternoon tun. "One of our neighbors called to tell us what we 'had' here," Kline lIaId. "We had to come and see tor ounelves." He hooked hls thumbs In the 8trap' of the pin-str1ped overalls he wore and gazed aCr08a the empttnes8. "At the baae of that overhang there was a ntce deep HOT AND thinty, Joe Novotny and I walked wearUy along the washed out North Fork road meeting the Kllne8 opposite the pool. 1 used to nah 1t tram our back porch aM caught some nice trout out ot It." The "pool" waa fUled with sUt, the 8till.brown North Fork waten: washing over it, st1rr1ng the eediment 80 that a faint line of whlt1l!lh color drttted downlltream with the current. "We can rebuild a house," MM!. Kl1ne Aid and her chin quivered ever 80 8Ughtly, "But we can't replace all of the plcture8 and per- sonal thing. that a tamlly accumulatell." She tumed and pointed across the rock.8trewn space to where the North Fork burbled along the oppostte bank, "We had the toot bridge about there but I'm not sure exactly where it was," Novotny stood on a large boulder that had washed up to the roadside In the flood and took the Kllne'e picture u the couple stood very clOlle together, ta1k1ng quietly and oc- casionally potnttng aCJ'088 the barren area. At Urnes they said nothing, each 10llt In their own thoughts and you could sense that they were drawn together in spirit, possibly wondoertng how it yean of work could have been totally erased In a space ot two or more hours. Novotny and I willhed them luck and resumed our hot walk up the canyon to Glen Haven. Each of UII had our thoughta too, remembering what KUne had told us berore we left the couple. "We were In the Kersey flood," he aa1d. "We moved here permanently alter the flood just to get away." Cause, effect ecology of the canyons Creeping stealthily Into the Dakotas, the high pressure area, with Uttle or no influence to the east of It to urge It on, ground to a halt, Its clockwise winds busily sucking moisture-laden air from the southeasl. Flowing smoothiy and W'lhurriedly across the plains, the winds reached the east side of the Rocky Moun. tAins. Interrupted by the barrier, they rose in a classic up-slope maneuver and blew quletly in this manner all day on July 31. 'Their main concentration was over the area ot Estes Park and the Big 'Ibompson canyon and Its canyon of the North Fork. As the winds gained height over the mountainS they formed huge bUlowing masses of clouds. Higher Md hlzhf'r the.v rose, spreading out to the sides, churning and clashing within themselves, with great, brllllant sheets of lightning llluminating their interiors adding to a process as old as time. ~ the clouds rose, energy was released when the vapor condensed Into watf>r droplets, leaving voids rapldlytuled by more ascending air. Feeding on itself the mass of clouds became super-saturated and unable to contain its burden released more rain as it progressed and grew, At their maxlmum intensUy cloud tops reached to more than 82,000 feet. - . Below the heaviest concentration of clouds the Big Thompson and North Fork Canyons lay, natural escape routes for excess water that had been fonned millIons of years ago. As natural phenomena oc. curred over the eons so had the canyons changed from mere low lines in the terrain to shallow washes, to deeper gulches to canyons, wide at their tops, narrow at the bottoms where the two rivers nm.Thefonnatlooofthecanyoos are the result of long, tortuous, natural processes. The flash flood was another process in the continual evolution of the canyons and the watersheds of the two rivers. released more and more rain, tlle earth eJther could not absorb the excess water or the rains feU too fast for It to do so. Thus the water began-' flowIng down the canyon sides and usually dry washes became creeks nmn1ng into gulches that before had contained trickles, turning them Into small rivers. The overburdened gulches poured their water into the main riven or into existing creeks, all eventually concentrating in the two main rivers. JoB the flow of water increased, power and rrlctlon bullt up to unreasonable proportions sweeping bare, gulch and draw bottoms to expose great sheets of bedrock, carrying off topsoil and vegetation accumulated over large spans of tlme. 11m ENORMOUS power ot the flood Hterally blew trout and aquatic lite before U. A trout with hi~ streamI1ned form Is essentially l fast-water fish but has Its IimUatlol\l when confronted with the power an~ turbulence of a flash flood. As the beds of the Big Thompsen and North Fork rivers were ripped apart and rocks of all sizes were dislodged, nonnal resting places and refuges were eliminated leaving fish to the mercy of the current. Presumably, they were swept out of the canyons into warmer, slow- moving waters on the plains. Some few may have resisted the wa1er's . power and escaped the terrible grinding of rocks and gravel and remained in the canyon. Many expert trout fishermen would not consider the BIg Thomp- son and North Fork rivers as quality trout streams. Nevertheless they were an Important source of recreation tor tourists and residents of the canyons. Serving the two rivers as part of the state's trout stocking program was the Drake trout rearing unlt of the Division of WUdlile on the North Fork. FaciUUes at the unlt were dealt a severe blow by the flash flood. Besides losing most of Its equipmenl and buildings, approximately 13 tons ot trout ranging in size from seven to 10 inches were either buried in water.bome sUt or were swept away. FIgurIng four fish per pound about 1M,COO trout were lost, the entire stock of fish at the Drake unit. IN EVERY W1contaminated body of water there are free.floating, tiny organisms so small they are either invisible or UMottced by the human eye and are known as plankton. They are the bottom of the food chain upon which Ush feed. Crustaceans and aquatlc insects feed on plankton and on each other and fish feed on the crustaceans and insects and other flsh. Aquatic in. sects such as May.fly nymphs, stone flies and caddis flies are adapted to Hving under stream rocks and In the Before the flood the canyons and the many side gulches and lesser creek boltoms had recovered from pn>\1ros floods so that s~am rocks and boulders were largely unsettled and the sides and bottoms of gulches had collected topsoll and grown vegetation. They could do this because the yearly nIJl-otf of snow-' melt Is a generally gradual process. ThUll the spring freshets are usually gentle; 00 occas:lon they have some strength which cause mJId bank washouts and lesser, subUechanges. There is nonnally little concern and changes are barely noticed during snow-melt and occasional rains. AS THE SUPER-saturated clouds 7 gravel of stream bottoms. As the Big Thompson and North Fork streambeds were disturbed, aquatic life without protection, was swept along with the flood waters leaving the streambeds in more or less sterUe conditions. Where the flood waters slowed on the plains outside of the canyons they settled with the sUt, Thus marshes and river deltas are enriched. It's nature's method of distributing organisms. Throughout the length of their flood plains the two rivers gouged new watercourses In places or widened and deepened their existing paths in others. The floodplains, the areas of generally flat land through which the rivers flow, were widened in places, entirely denuded of vegetation in others and someUmes changed so drastically that the visitor 01 the week before would find it difficult identifying some previously-familiar spots. The July 31 flash flood is one of several natural methods of en- vironmental adjustment; fire, volcanlc activity and earthquakes are others. The Big Thompson and North Fork canyons will continue to be subjected to sometimes subtle, sometimes violent environmental adjustment and change. nus is one of the cold, hard facts of the natural world. -EARL WD.iK)N place stralghtened up a little bit so I can prepare It for winter," He turned and walked away past a sign that said "Rocks, Mirera1s and Rock Jewelry" and the river stones, and shards of mica laying thick around the building mocked the sign, A QUARTER OF a mJIe down the remains of the road Russell Eulan still lives in a neat, undamaged bungalow at the confluence of Miller Creek and the North Fork. H]s house and four others are clustered together on a bright, grassy bench on a rise above the road and on the north bank of the river. Eulan Is a retired constroctton man and butlt his house four years ago. He's lived In the canyon since then and intends to remain there, "In fact," he saJd, "we had I'lO Intention of leaving for higher ground the night of the flood." He shilted to a more com- fortable posItion in the saddle cinch. ed to a trim, gray horse. He had been down the road checking on neigh. bono. "It started raining about 7:30 and before long was raining very hard," he recalled. "There was almost continuous lightning flashes and we could see the river coming up fast. In a little whUe we knew we had a Oood on our hands." There was nothing to do through thelong, anxlous hours except keep surface water from entertng the house and watch the deadly flood roar down the canyon, its tossing, brown waves slnlster in the gleam of lightning. MUler Creek, normally a mJId stream some four feet wide became a raging river 60 feet wide and an estimated 10 to 12 feet deep. It added Its own considerable power to the main stream's rapidly generating, unbelleveable force which was to cause more havoc farther dovmstream. All electrtcal power and telephone service had long since been disropted. With first I1ght at dawn on Sunday came the first shocking, impact of the damage and misery left behind by the flash flood; Eulan's home was turned into a refugee camp and helicopters soon arrived, landing on the sodden ground by the house. When the normally placid North Fork began to rise at an alarming rate, Don and Jane McKee and three guests watched with apprehension from the windows of the McKee's snug cabin about one.half mile down-canyon from the Euins place. They had reason for alarm since the cabin stood on a slight bank off the edge of the roadway, tucked under the overhang of a cUff. The river licked madly at the opposite edge of the road. The McKees had arrived at the cabin from Henderson, Colo., on Thursday, planning to vacation over the weekend. Meanwhile they worked on completion of a wall around the base of the tiny flat the cabin stood on. Being ecology conscious they built the wall of rocks; it would prove its worth by helping divert flood waters away from the cabin, In spite of the slx- feet high wall, however, the water sWl rose high enough to cover the patio. The tiny cabin was to become a refuge for 30 people. Three of the refugees, from Greeley, Colo., had been flghting their way through the ever- deepening flood waters that covered the road. The bright orange compact car they had been drlvtrtg had reached Its l1mIt of forward progress by the time the McKee drlveway came into sight. They pulled into the drlveway and barely reached the safety of the patio, with help from the McKees and their li:\Iests. TwIce, during the balance of the terror-fUled night McKee moved his charges out of the cabin to the salety of the canyon side. A 1,000 gallon propane tank, lorn loose from \15 mounts rumbled by and exploded in the flood just downstream of the cabin. A couple, discovered strand- ed on the roof of their flooded pickup, upstream of the canyon, was given encouragement by George Wilde whO shined a flashlight on them through the terror.fllled hours. Luck1ly the truck was in a backwash and the couple was rescued by neighbors early Sunday momlng when the water receded sllghUy, by wiring poles to the sides of a ladder and extending it from the bank to the bed of the truck. "The noise of the water was deafening," sald McKee. "The whole mountain seemed to tremble and you were reminded of the noise of jet engines being tested. After awhile the conUnuous roaring beats agalnst and into you and makes you sick al the stomach, It disorients you." In a dlsa.ster the pathos, humor, acU. 01 c:ourage are 80meUmea overshadowed by tricks of hap- penstance. While McKee and his guests were saving the young Greeley famUy from almost certain death, three young people set out from Loveland for the McKee cabin where they were to be guests for the weekend. They were to be at the cabin by 9 but never arrived. They had stopped at the Covered Wagon restaurant for refreshments and were swept away with the restaurant and Its other occupants by the smashing power of the flash flood.