Laserfiche WebLink
<br />CACHE LA POUDRE <br /> <br />Flood History. Annual peak flows on the Cache la Poudre <br />River normally occur in the period May through September, with <br />about 70 percent ocurring in June. Although most floods result <br />from intense rainfall in the basin, snowmelt runoff is a factor <br />and the worst potential flooding condition is that of heavy rains <br />at a time when snowmelt runoff is highest, in Mayor June. <br />Notable floods on the Cache la Poudre River in the study reach <br />occurred in 1844, 1864, 1884, 1891, 1904, 1923, and 1930. There <br />were apparently three large floods of comparable size in 1864, <br />1891, and 1904. All of these floods peaked near 21,000 cubic <br />feet per second. The 1904 flood was probably the worst flood in <br />terms of dollar damages. <br />Flood of 1844. Although it is known that severe flooding <br />occurred in the basin in 1844 as a result of heavy snow cover and <br />intense rainfall, the area was so sparsely settled at that time <br />that no accurate record was made of the effects of the flooding <br />in the lower basin. One description of that flood was in a <br />letter written by Antoine Janis, a French trapper on the river <br />near the present site of Laporte. He wrote: "On the first day <br />of June 1844, I stuck my stake on a claim in the valley. . . At <br />that time the streams were all very high." <br />Flood of June 1864. An extra heavy snowpack augmented by <br />a rainstorm on 9 June 1864 resulted in further flooding on the <br /> <br />14 <br />