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<br />~ <br /> <br />; <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />\l <br />PREVIOUS FLDQD8. <br /> <br />39 <br /> <br />-- <br /> <br />; <br />f <br />r <br />" <br /> <br />to 2 feet. This Is a worse ftood than any ~11at has occurred since the town <br />became a city. The water ftows wltha strong current throngh the streets and <br />everythlJ}g is confusion. The t1lloU covers the city from Union Avenne o~ the <br />Eonth side to Fourth A venne on the, north side, an grell of three-quarters of a <br />mile. ' ' <br /> <br />The issue of the J;iews on June 1 stated that on Second Street be- <br />tween Santa Fe Avenue and Main Street the .water was 4 feet deep <br />over the floors. of the bJlildings. Five lives were lost in Pueblo and <br />damage amounting to nearly $2,000,000 was done to property. <br />At its highest stage the,water was 3 feet deep in the Denver & Rio <br />Grande Railroad freight yard and kept that stage from 2 to 8.30 <br />a. m. May 31. , It receded slowly and by 6 a. m. June 1 had fallen <br />only 4!. fetlt. The highest stage was about 7 feet less than that of <br />the flood of 1921. , <br />Subseq'uent to the flood the city engineer, lfr. E. W. Hathaway, <br />measured the slope of the river and its flood cross section just west <br />of the city. He found the maximum discharge of the flood to be <br />39,100 second-feet, of which 24,200 second-feet had been carried by <br />the river channel and the remainder flowed through the city on both <br />sides of the river. Subsequently the river channel in Pueblo was <br />widened and the levees raised so that the improved channel would, <br />carry 40,000 second-feet. <br />In the :Arkansas Valley above Pueblo the flood of 1894 reached a <br />higher stage than that of 1921, the high-water mark 'on the old <br />Denver & Rio Grande Railroad pump house at Florence being 2 feet <br />highez;, than that of June 3, 1921. The crest of the flood reached <br />;Rocky Ford some time during May 31. Lamar rep,orted the flood <br />creSt at noon June 2, The upper limit of the flood area was about <br />Hardscrabble Creek, which carried an unusual flood flow. Coal and <br />Chandler cree1m were also very high., <br />Heavy 'rains on June 5, 1894, extending from Canon City to <br />Pueblo, again raised the Arkansas until it reached a stage at Pueblo' <br />about 8 inches lower than that of May 31., The rainfall on June 5 <br />was 1.82 inches at Canon City and 0.64 inch 'at Pueblo. __ <br />The lower Arkansas Valley was visited by very severe floods dur- <br />ing 1904; but they did not reach the upper valley. Between Wichita <br />and Arkansas City the flood of July 9, 1904, was the severest known, <br />For ten days before that date the maximum discharge at Pueblo ,vas <br />1,520 second-feet. On September 30, 1904, the severest flood !mown <br />occurred on Purgatoire River. This flood caiuled a great amount <br />of damage on Arkansas River below the, mouth of the Purgatoire," <br />but it did not affect the Arkansas Valley above the Purgatoire. The <br />maximum discharge at Pueblo for the weel, preceding September 30 <br />was 1,100 second-feet. <br /> <br />.. Meeker, R, I~ U. S. Geol, Survoy Water-Supply Paper 147, pp, 165-168, I~05, <br />