FLOOD05519

• County: Statewide
• Community: Eastern Colorado/South Platte River Basin
• Stream Name: South Platte River
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Report on the Floods of June 1965 South Platte River Basin Colorado and Nebraska
• Date: 1/1/1967
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Documentation Report

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(2) Franktown-Parker watershed project - upper Cherry Creek
basin. Eighteen small dams constructed by the Soil Conservation Service
in the Franktown-Parker area of upper Cherry Creek basin reduced flood
flows upstream of the Cherry Creek Dam. Of three structures filled
during the flood, two were overtopped and sustained erosion damage,
but the third structure functioned satisfactorily. The remaining
15 structures were outside the area of high intensity rainfall and
received only moderate runoff. Benefits attributable to the system
include reduction of dsmages to county roads, land and buildings, and
irrigation systems. These benefits are estimated at $150,000.

(3) West Cherry Creek watershed project. The West Cherry
Creek watershed contains 16 floodwater retarding structures. The
project area was on the fringe of the storm rainfall, with rainfall
values of 1 inch and less. The Soil Conservation Service's report
did not attribute any flood damage prevention to this watershed project.

d. Non-Federal flood control improvements.

(1) The capacity of the improved channel of the South Platte
River at Denver was greatly exceeded by the flood discharge on 16 June,
consequently, no flood damage prevention was assigned to these improve-
ments.

(2) The privately constructed agricultural levee system on
the South Platte River immediately downstream of Denver was overtopped
and flanked by the June floods and was unable to prevent flooding from
the lesser floods of July and August. Consequently, no prevention of
flood damages was credited to these improvements.

V. DISASTER PREPARATION AND ACTION

22. ACTION BY TIlE CORPS OF ENGINEERS

a. Pre-flood and post-flood operations performed by the Corps of
Engineers were undertaken in compliance with the authority provided in
Public Law 99, 84th Congress. Operations under this authority included
pre-flood surveillance of developing stom and runoff conditions;
reconnaissance and surveillance of flooding, flood crest movements,
flood damages; cooperative activities with other Federal, State, and
local agencies, and certain clean-up and restoration of flood-damaged
public facilities. A major aspect of Corps of Engineers activities
involved cooperative operations with the Office of Emergency Planning
in compiling estimates of flood damages and cost estimates for certain
aspects of post-flood recovery work perfomed by local government
under the provisions of Public Law 875.

b. The Corps of Engineers Resident Engineer in Denver began
surveillance of the stom and flood conditions on 14 June 1965 when

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