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CANON CITY DAILY RECORD CANON CITY, FREMONT COUNTY, COLORADO JULY 1, 1957 THE CANON CITY DAILV RECORD CANON CITY, FREMONT COUNTY, COLORADO THURSOAY,JULV29,1965 HEAVY STORM POUNDS NORTH SIDE OF CITY By 1oI111ls A. Gi1laspey Second major thunderstonn and third ra1n over a four-day period s~pt the Canon City area Wednesday ni9ht, the heavy downpour caused rock and mud slides in the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River, blockin9 thema1n line and passing track of the Denver & R10Grande \/estern Rail- road, four miles west of the City. A diesel locomotive on an eastbound freight (CF&l rock train from Monarch Quarry west ofSalidal was partially derailed when it struck the westernmost slide. Flooding conditions along the Arkansas River took on serious proportions Saturday as the stream rose an additional half foot in a four-hour period before noon, chewing away many acres of valuable fann1ands east of Canon City and threatenting to break through retaining dikes on the south side opposite the southern Colorado Power Plan and extending west forpossib1y a Quarter of a mile, At 11 a.m. the reading on the river was 9,450 second feet according the District \/aterCOlTll1issioner O.R. Van C1eve. This was a gain of exactly 1,000 second feet over the regular 6:30 a.m. reading which wasB,450 and at that time a new high for the current runoff. . . . Depth of the river at the gauging station. located adjacent to Riverside Drive on the south side of the river, was 6.7 feet at 11 Lm. At 6:30 the depth was 6.3 feet. Two other large slides and a srnaller one occurred east of the derailment and just west of mile post 164. Canon City is four miles from the 164 marker. . . . . . . Main force of the stonn, which broke around 9 p.m. was not confined to the Royal Gorge. It swept over Eight Ml1e and the Skyline Drive, causing nonna11y dry Sand Creek to run a nood-swollen torrent which added to the 7,410 second feet passing the Canon city gauging station sent the river to an estimated 11,000 or more second feet by the time it reached the Minoequa (CFtil) 01tch at Brewster. The 11,000 plus second feet flow was a new record for the year and considerably above flood stage. The runoff from the nogbacks along the Skyline Drive was the heaviest in several years, torrents of water cas- cadingrocksaswell as silt int() the residentia1 areas on the north side. Nearly every street intersection was partiallyb1ocked. Ci ty crews worked from an early hour through Thursd~y morning to remove the debris. Mud was pushed down as far as Main and River streets and water no~d over the s1dewalk on two blocks of Main Street. Violent windS of short duration aCCOOlpanied the down- pour, and one larg!' tree was broken off on the north side. Numl'rous tree limbs and branchl'S were rlpped off and there was some damage to roofs, TV antennaes and gardens. Another tree was uprooted on the north s1c!e. . ., Early Saturday, MayorRoyT. Mendenhall and other south Canon residents went into a huddle at a crucial point of the riprappings adjacent to Riverside Drivl'. At this point the river nas eaten away the bank for a depth of 20 or more feet. It has washed away 75 to 100 feet of log and rock riprap, and threatens further damage unless inmense rocks are dumped into thecnannel at the point where the current is strongest. NEARING TOP OF DIKE Further west the river is within one foot of the dike top. Already considerable water has seeped into garden land<;and this brings the oeril of water movinq east and hampering themovernentof trucks when south Canon crews start repairing the riprapping. Several large trees along the south bank of the river between the Fourth Street and Ninth Street brldges have been dislodged and more are in irrrnediatedanger. As the trees float loose they are a potential danger to bridges and riprapping down stream. 16 17