FLOOD09026 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

fires started almost simultaneously with the leveE! breaks due to the electrical system failure. "Burning piles of timber from a blazing lumber yard drifted through the streets of the city, lodging momentarily against frame buildings and setting them on fire," according to the USGS Water Supply Paper No. 467. The burning buildings were surrounded by floodwate'rs and the water system was incapacitated by the flood. Thus, it was almost impossible to fight the fires which finally burned out. The flood Was caused by "clIJ,udbursts" in the foothill region of the Arkansas River watershed in Colorado. The swift rise, fall, and unprecedented, stage of the flood ~Iere remarkable considering the small areal extent of the storm. The city received 3.09 inches of rain June 3 and 4 and, ~jring the period June 2 through June 5, 6.15 inches of rain fell. The Arkansas River flood pE,aked at 10c,,000 cubic feet per second, the largest discharge of reliable record at Pueblo. fountain Creek crested at 34,000 cubic :Feet per sE'cond a few hours after the Arkansas River peak accordin!;1 to USGS rE,cords. May 30-31, 1935 "Pueblo flood Loss Greatest Since Disaster of 1921; Officials Study Conservancy Plans," stated the PUE,blo Chieftain headlines. The paper also attributed at least a half million dollars damage to the flood. The brunt of the damage was sustained by the Colorado State Hospital Annex and the Platt Rogers Construc- tion Company, both situated immediately north of town. The Missouri Pacific Railroad bridge Was also badly damaged. The flood originated over less than HID square miles of the Monument Creek watershed with as much as '7 or 8 inches of rainfall wi thin 24 hours reported at sE,veral points in the storm area. The discharge at the mouth of fountain Creek was 35, ODD cubic feet per second according to USGS records. 27