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<br />. <br /> <br />Pacific) locomotive in the quicksands of Kiowa Creek . on the <br /> <br /> <br />night of May 21, 1878. A sudden flood had destroyed the wooden <br /> <br /> <br />bridge that crossed the usually dry channel a short time before a <br /> <br /> <br />freight train was due, and owing to the bridge being the low point <br /> <br /> <br />of a sag in the roadbed and (to) the high speed of the train, the <br /> <br /> <br />engine and most of the cars plunged into a swirling torrent of <br /> <br /> <br />water before the engineer realized the situation. The engineer, <br /> <br /> <br />fireman, and brakeman went down with the engine, which was <br /> <br />completely buried. <br /> <br /> <br />A few days later . . . search was begun for the missing <br /> <br /> <br />engine. Long metallic rods were driven in the sands. In some <br /> <br /> <br />places pits were started but soon abandoned because of the heavy <br /> <br /> <br />underflow, and the location of the. . . locomotive appeared hope- <br /> <br /> <br />less when it was estimated the bedrock formation was probably 50 <br /> <br /> <br />feet below the channel of the Kiowa. (It never was recovered.)" <br /> <br />. Flood of 30-31 May 1935. This flood was caused by several <br /> <br /> <br />small storm cells centered over the extreme upper reaches of the <br /> <br /> <br />Kiowa Creek basin. Rainfall amounts up to 24 inches in a 12-hour <br /> <br /> <br />period were reported. At the small town of Kiowa, Colorado, 15 <br /> <br /> <br />houses were swept away and several stores were wrecked. Estimated <br /> <br />peak discharges on Kiowa Creek for this event were 43,500 cubic <br /> <br /> <br />feet per second at Elbert just below the junction of Kiowa and <br /> <br /> <br />West Kiowa Creeks, 110,000 cubic feet per second at a site about <br /> <br /> <br />11 miles downstream from Kiowa, and 75,300 cubic feet per second <br /> <br /> <br />near Bennett. Water in Wiggins was several feet deep. <br /> <br />. Flood of 17-18 June 1965. A large storm system which was <br /> <br /> <br />centered over the Bijou Creek basin to the east extended into the <br /> <br /> <br />upper reaches of the Kiowa Creek basin. The largest rainfall <br /> <br /> <br />amount reported was 14 inches, most of which fell in a single <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />48 <br />