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<br />except when augmented with heavy rainfall. <br />features of the stream basins, notably the <br />erosive clay-sand soils, are all conducive <br />concentration of runoff resulting in flash <br />characterized by high peak flows, moderate <br />and short durations. <br /> <br />The physical <br />highly <br />to a rapid <br />flooding, <br />volumes, <br /> <br />Major floods have occurred in Las Animas County <br />throughout its history, but historical records of <br />various events are primarily focused upon the Trinidad <br />area, because its population has comprised more than <br />60 percent of the county population. Large magnitude <br />floods swept the Trinidad vicinity on at least three <br />occasions, including November 1866, the summer of 1883, <br />and July 1886. Definitive information is generally <br />lacking, but it is certain that flood damages increased <br />with each flood event, paralleling the growth of <br />Trinidad and continuing settlement in the rural <br />purgatoire River Valley. Among the major floods occur- <br />ring since 1896, the September 1904 flood was the <br />the highest of record on the Purgatoire River, but <br />the May 1955 flood (ranking fourth in terms of peak <br />discharge) reportedly caused the greatest devastation. <br />The most significant recorded floods on the Purgatoire <br />River occurred in 1904, 1925, 1942, and 1955 when dis- <br />charges of 45,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), 33,000 <br />cfs, 35,000 cfs, and 28,000 cfs, respectively, were <br />recorded at the Trinidad gaging station. <br /> <br />On September 30, 1904, the Purgatoire River attained <br />an estimated peak discharge of 45,000 cubic feet per <br />second, the greatest discharge ever recorded at Trinidad. <br />Regional communication, transportation, and public <br />utility installations were severely-damaged, and essen- <br />tial services were interrupted. Within Trinidad, <br />the floodwaters overflowed both into residential and <br />commercial areas, washed out four bridges, and swept <br />away the Santa Fe Depot. Losses in the city ranged <br />from an estimated $350,000 to $500,000. <br /> <br />According to the July 23, 1925, Trinidad Chronical News, <br /> <br />"Trinidad was swept by the most threatening <br />flood of 20 years between the hours of <br />6:30 and 9 o'clock last night, when, <br />after a series of cloudbursts here and <br />up the river, the Purgatoire River... <br />inundated a fairly large area of the <br />city...Scores of people along the river <br />course were forced to leave their homes. <br />The Santa Fe Depot and Cardenas Hotel <br />property were under water...Pine Street <br /> <br />8 <br />