FLOOD04731 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

BENJAMIN F. STAPLETON Chillrmiln, Denver ~ _.i!/__ "<"_ 'II' ,~~ 8/,;, ".-,:' ~- .,........ . " ~ FELIX L SPARKS Director FREDERICK V KROEGER Vlce-Ch<llrm<ln, Durango LI~REN D. MOR"l1 U Deputy Dlrer.le' JOHN T. BEI\TON Burns JOH N H _ BROWN ELL Hooper CLARENCE E. BURR Walden RICHAHO D. I_AMM Gov"',,o' JOHN R. FETCHER Steamboat Springs DEPARTMENT Of NATURAL RESOURCES LEE E. FORD Montrose COlORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD ROBERT A. JACKSON Pueblo 102 COlUMBINE BUILDING 1845 SHERMAN STREET DE~IVER, COLORADO 80203 HERBERT H. VANDEMOER Sterling TELEPHONE 303-89234' E'OREWARD Damaging floods have occurred throughout: the known his1:ory of Colorado. In June 1965, ColoradO suffE,red a series of floods which for the most part exceeded previous recorded floods. Damage totaled over 500 million dollars and 21 people lost t:heir lives. Flood damages in Colorado have totaled about a billion dollars in the last 20 years. Flood damages continue to increase in the United states in spite of an investment of over lJ. billion dollars in flood control stJ~uctures by the Corps of Engineers and the Soil Conservation Service. The occupation of flood-prone land:s ha:s increasE,d 'when adjoining areas have been protected by structures. A typical example is the South Platte floodplain near Denver, which has been occupied more int:ensely following protect.ion of the adj acent Cherry Creek area by Cherry Creek Darn. No doubt. benevolE,nt disaster :t:elief programs have further encouraqed occupation of the floodplains. In 1966, the task force on federal flood control policy estimated annual losses from floods to be in excess of one billion dollars. The federal Flood Insurance Administration currently estimates annual flood damages to be $ 1.5 billion -- this in spite of an annual investment in flood control structures of over $ 500 million. So in a sense structural and relief proqrams are a failure because they encourage people to settl'l in floodplains. Completed projects may not always provide complete protection because of unprecendented storm runoff or structural deficiencies. Also, protection decreases with distance downstream from flood storaqe projects. Mountinq floodwater damages and flood disaster relief costs caused the Congress and many states to enact proqrams t:hat would prevent rather than encourage hazardous occupation of the floodplains. In 1937, The Colorado General Assembly created the Colorado Water Conservation Board and charged it among other thinqs with the responsi- bility for "the utmost prevention of floods."