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August 1976 :.'")rt Collins Coloradoan 3 BIG THOMPSON'FLOOD-1976 === HIGHWAYS ~ISASTERAREAS . . ~~~B~I~~~ENTS ... .. N The Big Thompson .flood - a night of tragedy By JAKIl!IIENSHAW Of the Cblora.doan FbI' residents of mountainous area.s, canyons are more than Just scenic gapaln the rocks. Their location and characteristics otten are among the most lmportant inIluen~ on the pattern of llves in populated areas. People frequently decIde where to Uve and bulld, vacation and work depending on the width, depth and sheerneSS of a chasm. Sometimes a canyon 1s the home of a year-a.round stream and this too 1s an 1ntluence on people. Not only rec.reatlOll. but also the very lIte of conunun1t1es depends on the water and \he. coone It toUOW& down a canyon. 'I1l.1s certainly has been the ease with the Big'Thompson Canyon. In the memory of most residenta of the area, thJs canyon has been an lmportant part of the We of many people. It has been the place tor vacation homes and f1shing as well as a permanent residence for many, a part of the water system for surrounding communities and a route for business travelers and aehooI ch1Idren. THAT ALL WAS altered more than anyone could have Imagined on Saturday, July 31,1978. On that day In the nation's blcenteMia1 year, the state of Chlorado was beginning a three.-da.y weekend to celebrate it! own loath birthday. , The weekend weather forecast Issued Friday was typical, good enough for a weekend In the mountains. "Clear to partly cloudy today with lAolated afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy tonight and Saturday with widely scattered mainly afternoon showers and thunderstorms. A Uttle cooler Saturday. High5 today 8Il to 95 with 70s to nrld 80s in the mountairul. Lows tonight 55 to 65 with 40s and upper 30s in the mountains. Highs Saturday 80s and a few low 90s with mostly 10s in the mountains." 'ThIs was the standard summer forecast and every resident knew he had 8 good chance of escaping any . s1gnit1cantrainfallwlthaUttleluck. Even when it began to spr1nkle between ~:30 and 6 p.m, Saturday 1n the upper canyon and Estes Park, few people gave It much thought. Thunderstonns form quickly in the RockJes, but they al90 disap- pear almost as quickly after a brief downpour. Some of the 3,1XMl to 4,000 people In the Big Thompson Canyon and Its north fork that night even reported later that, lniUally, the patter of .rain on their cabin or tra.l.ler roofs was a 800thing melody which blended pleasantly with the rippling of the nearby streams. But travelers on the road kne..... differently as the evening progressed. Between 6 and 8 p.m. they Wl'l'e eneountertng ratn of /n- creasing intE'nslty making driving more and more d1ftlcult. . Overhead thunderheads, ranging up to 52,em feet, slaHeO' fnstead of moving across an area 8lI they usually do. The oval-shaped center of the storm was hanging right over the upper section of the main canyon between Drake and Estes Park and another fntense area was located near Glen Haven. Because of a broken remote radar transmitter in Umon, the Denver forecaster for the national Weather Service (NWS) that evening was denied some preclse data on the weather developments. H1a work also was slowed because he had to take the radar information over the telephone. Just how much thJs break- down affected the forecaster's ability to predict a flash flood currently is a subject of debate as wen as an internal investigation by the National Oceanic and At- mospheric Administration. What is ceriain is that the NWS did not lBsue a Dash Oood warning unW a.tter the Oood water had roared through the canyon. At 7:3.5 p.rn.. a weather bulletin went out warn!ng of the posslblUty of a severe thunderswnn untU 9 p.m. \n ea.stllm Lartmer Chunty. "There could be some flooding of low areas.., espec1a.lJy just to the west of Fort Collins." AREA LAW enforcement agencies first heard about problems in the Big Thompson from private phone calls about road trouble on U.S. 34. Sgt. Pat McCosh was the dispatcher that night a.t the Larimer County Sheriff's oftlce in Fort Collins. His ftrst call about the canyon camebetween7:30and8:1~ p.rn.. 1l1e caller said there were 8 couple of boulders on the road near Wallonia. The woman didn't mention ra.in and McCosh didn't even get her name or log the call because "It happens all the time." About the same time Jay Lorance, the radlo dispatcher for the Colorado Slate Patrol (CSP) in Greeley, received a private call about a "minor" road washout n{'at Grandpa's Retreat. nus was his ftrst IndJcat10n of trouble in the canyon, but again the call was considered routine. Lorance contacted Patrolman WUIJam M1ller, who was then five to seven m1Ies east of Estes Park on U.S. 36, and asked him to check out the report. The Loveland Pollce Department also received a Teletype message from the CSP asking that the state hJghwa,y department be contacted about the washout By 8 p.m. the Bureau of ReclamatIon, which had been monitoring the heavy rainfall, cut off the flow of water from Dry Gulch, located generally northeast of Estes Park, Into the Big Thomp- 9OnR1ver. Wlth1n an hour the bureau had cut off the water entering Lake Estes through the tunnel from the Western Slope and was diverting the lake's water through Its system into Carter Lake and Honetooth Reservoir, the latter by way of the siphon over at the mouth of the Big Thompson Canyon, The tint call for help came from MUleI' who radIoed 10-33, an emergency, to the Estes Park Pollee Department between 8:2ti and 8:30 =es: ~~~d~~or aa evacuation of people. About the same time McQ)sh received a call from a man in Drake who Identified himself as an ex-state patrolman and saId there was water crosalng U.S. 34 above Drake, and "we're getting a real trafflc problem. " 8:44. p.m.-Special SherIff's Deputy Larry Wyer contacted McCosh from Drake call1ng for help. "[)own at Grandpa's Retreat, !t'. going if It's not gone already," he said, 8:44 p.m.-Ten seconds later the Estes Park Police dispatcher called McQ)sh to report flooding In the canyon and to request aid In reseue efforts. _ 8:4li p.m.-McCosh started calling his superiors Including Sheriff Robert Watson, all of who lm-l mediately began warning people in' ~:~m._Lorance contacted the: CSP supel'V1sor on call, Sgt. W. Hugh Purdy, at home in U:l'Veland. He told all officers to stay In their assigned areas and left for the canyon to investigate the sItuation. i p.m. _ A weather bulletin was ls8Ued In Denver. It warned of thunderstorins moving slowly from Idaho Springs to Wyoming whIch "could result in some local flooding in the followtng Colorado counties , _ , Northern Clear. . . Boulder. . Larimer . . . and extreme eastern Jackson. Persons near the thun- derstorms should be on the alert for the heavy thundershowers," The rainfall was predicted to last until about midnight. 9 p.m. "plus" - Rose Miller, dispatcher from the Loveland pollce, received a message from the state patrol telling her to notlty everyone from Dra.ke down the canyon that "the water 1s coming so fast that the headwaters are ex- pected to take the Dam Store and the (Loveland) power plant both." &-9: 1~ p.m. - State Patrolman nmmy Uttlejohn reported very heavy water on the north fork of the canyon. i:nS p.m.-Purdy called. ''I'm ~. I'm rlght,ln the middle of It. I can't get out. About a half.mlle east of Drake on the highway." He told Lorance to order everyone below him out of the canyon. That was his last lransmIBslon. 9:~9:SOp.m.-Ca.pt. TerryUrlsta and OftIcer James Garcia of the shertff's oftI.ce radioed from Cedar Cbve. They said to get everyone out of the canyon and away from the rtver"now." The two were trapped in thereunlliSunday. 9:30-10 p.m.-Efforts, begun earlier, to notify everybody in the path of the rapidly r1sing water Intensified in person and by telephone. Despite repeated warn- ings, some people refused to move. Many never were even contacted. A few made two and three trips into the dangerous areas to retrieve belongtngs. A late roadblock was set up at the mouth of the canyon. About 10 p.m. a command post was set up at the Men1-Ax Restaurant & Lounge on U.S. 34 west of Loveland, Watson, CSP Capt. I =~=rt~~rr:tlC:dOf~:'fO:~~ , sherlff and other law enforcement offIclals dlreded the search and rescue operations from here I throughout Sunday moml.ng unt11 they moved to the Northern .Colorado Water Conservancy D1strlctoffice (NCWCD). Between 10 and 11 p.m. people I beyond the lmmedlate area began to ~Jeamthat80meth1ngwas wrong. The flood left 0 path of destruction GLENN GARCELON, the duty otflcer of the Federal Diaaster Assistance Administration (FOAA) on cali in Denver, heard there was a problem in the Big 'Thompson Canyonon a10p.m, news show. About 30 minutes later, Bill Martin, the duty officer for the state Emergency Division of Disaster Emergency Services, received a call from Earl [)e.nton, the Larimer County CIvil Defense director, who very briefly sketched out the situation and asked for National Guard asslstance. Martin said he relayed this request to ChI. H. Yeargan of the NatlonalGuard. Later Denton called Martln to request helicopters from Fort Carson to use at da Wll. 10: 15 p. m. -Gene Greenwalt, owner of Ag Hellcopters Inc. of Fort Collins received his first call from Denton, who said to stand by. About this time, the Loveland HIgh School was opened as a refugee center. The ftrst arrtvalswere those evacuated from theIr homes in front of the flood. They were greeted by the FIre S1rens, wives of local firemen, and representatives of the American Red Cross as well as school officials. The Salvation Army would soon be busy at the command post IN THE CANYON the water was moving at 21 feet per second, ac- cording to estimates of the Bureau of Reclamation. A "wall of water" was building as makeshit't dams, tern. porar1ly caught behind br1dges and other obstructions, gave way, releasing repeated rushes of water. Eyewitnesses 1n the canyon reported that the "wall" was preceded by an eerie, walling moan. Boulders were bounced around like basketballs, vehicles were swept along in the current as if they were toys, and houses were torn from their foundations-or taken along with the foundations and the soU beneath them. Hundreds of propane tanks, ripped from tralIers and homes, bobbed along'in the rushing water, hissing and spewing their contents Uke buzzbombs. There were repeated reports of lights waving frantically from the river and screa.ms of help from the passing vehicles and homes. AT THE MOtm-l of the canyon, the Bureau of Reclamation estimates that the 225,000 ton siphon collapsed about 10:4:) p.m. when a floating building hIt the southern support. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the water crested at 17 to 19 feet up the canyon wall w1th about 40,000 cubic feet per second at the mouth at 11 p.m. "BULLETIN FLASH F'LOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SER- VICE DENVER uPM MDT 31 JUL 1976 A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS IN E.FIT.Ct \ffi't1l..\Ml 1oID't W?. PERSONS NEAR THE BIG mOMPSON RIVER FROM NEAR LOVELAND TO GREELEY alLORAIJO. A FLASH F1.OOD WARNING MEANS FLOODING IS IM- MINENT. TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS AS REQUIRED." Ms. M1ller of the Loveland PolIce Department followed the wave of water down the canyon between 10:30 and 11 p.m. by the teiephones that went dead in the water's path as she was caliing to w;arn peopie. As the water moved out onto the plaJns, she and two other dispat. chen, who were now on duty, began to notify residents 1Jv1ng near 1rrIgatlon dItches that wen! fed'by the B1g Thompson. At 11:21 p.m., her log notes that the gates to Lake Loveland wen! opened to receive some of the flood water. The Bureau or Reclamat10n receIved a call from the sherlff's office to shut off the water into the s1phonatll:2ep.m. IN ESTES PARK, the night was spent walttng and watching. Rainfall there totaled oniy about four inches between 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday, much less than the 10 to 12 inches that fell five to eight m1Ies to the east. But the Ilghtn1ng show was the most awesome that anyone could remember. People crowded Into the municIpal buDding as well as other public and private buUdings around the city. They knew something was happening, but rl9 was sure exactly what. Long distance telephone service was out and the roads were closed. A sewer line was damaaed, causing raw sewage to flow into the river - but few people knew it then. The only hint people in the municipal butlding had of what was developing was local phone calis reporting a person drowned, people stranded and damage to vehJcles and structures. There were also periodiC rad10 messages from ofticers trapped in the canyon. As the word of the disaster spread, callers to the Estes police statIon began to offer assistance. Early in the moming Estes Park High School was opened as a refUgee center. The problem of knowing the extent of the situation also was bothering people in Denver. MartIn had gone to Camp George West near Golden to monitor developments as they became known. The emergency staff of the camp also reported hourly to the FOAA duty officer after he called about 2:10a.m. Garcelon's call had been per. clpltated by a call he received from a regular Army officer at Fort Carson, asking penn1sslon to send Anny helicopters to Loveland. The okay meant posgIble cost reim- bursement. This was the FDAA officer's first call about the disaster and after conftnnlng It wtth Camp George, he contacted his boss, Donald G. Eddy, the regional FDAA admInistrator.' Gareelon approved the helicopter flIghtsabout3p.m. From midnIght to dawn in Llveiand, offlc1aJs divided their time between what reseue work they could accomplish and planning their work after daylight. CAlLS POURED IN'ro Loveland and Fort Collins throughout the night about people stranded-on Islands, trees, rocks, housetops and ~~a.Wv~"'",~. The first body apparently was found between 2:30 and 3 a.m. near the Big Thompson Schooi, but wasn't recovered unW later. The first heUcopter mghts began about this time. Greenwalt saId he arrived in Loveland by 2:30 a.m., about the same time as the helicopter from St. Anthony's Hospital. Greenwalt began flyIng 1m- med1ately and continued, in In- tenn1ttent nUn, to search the area betweenthe~StoreMdWfuoo - FLOOD. P. G. 0>1. 2