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<br />13 <br /> <br /> <br />did not know one another until they jointly climbed the mounta'inside <br /> <br /> <br />to escape the rising water. Some qualitative analysis, by ind'ividual, <br /> <br /> <br />was completed for the people who died, as the information was readily <br /> <br /> <br />available from published lists. Genera"lly, howevet., all quantH:ative <br /> <br /> <br />analysis for the victims as well as for the survivors was done using <br /> <br />the "group." <br /> <br />It was originally intended that the actions of sixty groups of <br />survivors would be examined. Thirty of those groups were to be com- <br />posed of local residen:s and thirty groups composed of out-of-state <br />residents who were tourists in the canyon. Due to limited information <br />available for tourist survivors, only 27 groups of tourists are in- <br />cluded in the study. <br />The sample selected is representat'ive of both the range of <br />familiarity with the canyon and the spat"ial distribution of people in <br />the canyon that night. Half of each sample were to have received either <br />no warning or only environmental cues prior to the flood, and <br />half to have received an official or unofficial warning. It was only <br />possible to identify six out-of-state groups who received any warning <br />and twenty-one who received no warning. <br />The names for the thirty groups of local people included in the <br />sample were found in newspaper articles fo"llowing the flood, or on lists <br />provided by Inter-Faith, the main relief organization. In addition, <br />volunteers from among the residents at the Big Thompson Action Group <br />explained their actions during the flood in casual conversations at <br />meetings, and interviews taped with residents shortly after the flood <br />were a 1 so used. <br />