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<br />CHAPTER 4 <br />COLORADO FLOOD HISTORY <br /> <br />4.1 SOUTH PLATTE RIVER <br /> <br />Flood Historv. Flooding along the South Platte River normally occurs from May <br />through September with the most frequent flooding occurring during June. Serious floods, <br />however, have occurred from February through December. Floods normally occur under <br />non-ice affected conditions. Ice jams, however, are possible even though their historical <br />frequency of occurrence is rare. <br /> <br />The following flood accounts are typical of flood events which have occurred along the <br />South Platte River in Colorado, but are, by no means, a complete history of such. They <br />are presented here to give some insight as to the source and magnitude of floodwaters <br />from the South Platte River affecting Colorado. <br /> <br />Flood of 1844. Floodwaters purportedly covered the bottom lands in Denver vicinity <br />from bluff to bluff. <br /> <br />Flood of 1864. Three separate floods caused by heavy rains over snow occurred <br />during May and June on the South Platte River. A resident of Platteville later described <br />the flood of mid-May at that location as the largest flood he had observed prior to 1925. <br />Flooding occurred in late May and again in early to mid-June. The South Platte River flood <br />in Weld County was augmented downstream from Denver by tributary inflow from both the <br />mountain and plains tributaries. <br /> <br />Flood of 1876. The flood of late May 1876 resulted from rainfall on snowpack. It was <br />reputed to have been the highest flood since 1864. <br /> <br />Flood of 1894. Heavy rainfall over the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains caused <br />flooding on the South Platte River in late May and early June. Floodwaters purportedly <br />covered hundreds of acres In the Brush vicinity. Oldtimers said the South Platte River was <br />"fully two miles wide". The Fort Morgan Times of 8 June 1894 stated that "for 24 hours <br />on 2 June, the flood touched the caps on the top of the bridge piling". Considerable inflow <br />resulted from such streams as Clear Creek, Boulder Creek, and St. Vrain Creek. <br /> <br />Flood of 1921. Heavy rainfall over much of the upper South Platte River basin caused <br />flooding in Weld County in early June. Between Brighton and Orchard, the wooden <br />bridges were impassable; two were destroyed and the approaches to the others were <br />destroyed for a distance of several hundred yards, At Fort Morgan, the water surface crest <br />was comparable to that of the flood of 1894. The discharge of this flood at Kersey and at <br />Balzac was the largest ever recorded at that location except for the flood of May 1973 and <br />the flood of June 1965, respectively. <br /> <br />Colorado Flood <br />Hydrology Manual <br /> <br />4.1 <br /> <br />fRIJFf <br />