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<br />2.2 Identificaton of the Hazards <br /> <br />The deplaration of the Lawn Lake dam failure flood as a <br />major disaster by the President has provided a special <br />opportunity for the state and local governments to take a broader <br />look at improving Colorado's existing flood hazard mitigation <br />activities. <br /> <br />2.2.1 People and Floods <br /> <br />Relationships between flood hazard and population identify <br />patterns of risk, as shown in figure 2,5. Relationships between <br />patterns of risk and steps taken toward preparedness explain <br />degrees of vulnerability to which various Coloradans are <br />exposed. 1 <br /> <br />Such relationships are not new to Colorado. The natural <br />phenomena involved have .occurred here long before people settled <br />near them and were impacted by them, Risk grows from the <br />increasingly close association between natural phenomena and a <br />growing population. 1 Figure 2.6 depicts the geography of <br />Colorado and figure 2.7 indicates the distribution of people from <br />the same perspective. <br /> <br />People become vulnerable to flood hazards when they choose <br />(knowingly or unknowingly) to live near the areas where these <br />extreme events occur. Vulnerability is also related to <br />preparedness. People who prepare for the occurrence of an <br />extreme event are less vulnerable to it than those who do not, <br />The vulnerability of Colorado's population is rooted in a <br />relationship between the occurrences of extreme events, the <br />proximity of people to these occurrences, and the degree to which <br />these people are prepared to cope with these extremes of nature.1 <br /> <br />Today, flood prone areas have been identified in 212 cities <br />and towns and in all of the 63 counties in Colorado, Using <br />information supplied from local units of governments, there are <br />estimated to be approximately 150,000 people now living in <br />Colorado's floodplains. This is 5.2 percent of the population <br />based on the 1980 census of population of 2,888,834 people in the <br />State. Assuming 2,42 persons per housing unit as reported in the <br />1980 census of housing and other data, there are estimated to be <br />approximately 62,000 homes and 12,000 commercial and industrial <br />business structures located in Colorado's floodplains, The total <br />value of property, including structures and contents, exposed to <br />the 100-year flood in Colorado is estimated to be over 6 billion <br />dollars. <br /> <br />'Colorado Division of Disaster Emergency Services, "Colorado.s <br />Vulnerability to Very Hiqh Risk Natural Hazards". <br /> <br />-28- <br />