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<br />The Denver Post/Friday. July 18. 1986
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<br />STATE & REGION
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<br />Big Thompson-size flood due, control chief warns
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<br />By.SUI Walker
<br />Del'\'l'MPostStaflWritef
<br />. BOULDER;.... Colorado is due for anoth-
<br />er flood as big as the oile that bit Big
<br />Thompson Canyon in 1976, the state's
<br />flood-control chief said Thursday.
<br />"The Big Thompson flood has been
<br />matched or exceeded every 10 to 15
<br />years," said Larry Lang of the slate Water
<br />Conservation Board. "Everyone keeps
<br />saying it'D never happen again, but the ev-
<br />idence is that it does." .
<br />The Big Tbo~pson flood, which inundat.
<br />
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<br />ed the canyon Detween Loveland and Es.-
<br />tes Park on July 31, 1976, was the worst
<br />natural disaster in Colorado hiStory. It
<br />killed 140 people. injured 88 and caused $30
<br />million in damage.
<br />Those losses may never be matched, but
<br />fioods witJl the same destructive potential
<br />are' fairly common. Lang said at a sympo-
<br />sium marking the 10th anniversary of Big
<br />Thompson.
<br />The symposium has brought together
<br />more than 100 scientists, public officials
<br />and disaster-rellet"experts for tl1ree days
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<br />of talks about the lessons learneti from the
<br />flood, aJ1d what advances have been made
<br />in the decade since.
<br />"While we have made great strides in
<br />'the areas of warning systems, public
<br />awareness, emergency preparedness and
<br />intergovernmental cooperation. 200 people
<br />still die annuaDy in floods in the U.S.. and
<br />losses top $4 billion." said Eve Gruntfest, a
<br />professor at the University of Colorado at
<br />ColoradO Springs.
<br />Richard Cook, ~tor of emergency
<br />preparedness for Jefferson County, made
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<br />
<br />the same point more bluntly: "I don't
<br />think we have learned a thing." Technolo-
<br />gy is 'better, he said, but people continue to
<br />build homes and businesses in flood-prone
<br />areas - and governments allow it.
<br />The flood, produced by 12 inches of rain
<br />in less than five bours, was the worst in
<br />the canyon in at least 10,000 years., accord~
<br />ing to geological studies, But rains as'
<br />heavy or heavier, producing flOOdwaters
<br />even more rapid than the 33,000 cubic feet
<br />per second recorded at the mouth of the
<br />Big Thompson, have often been recorded
<br />
<br />in the stale, said Lang. .
<br />"We're just lucky that they don't all hit
<br />populated areas," he said. For example, in
<br />1981, Frijole Creek in rural Las Animas
<br />County got 16 inches of rain in -jl.lSt four
<br />hours, causing a peak streamflow of more
<br />than 50,000 cubic feet per S&'ond.
<br />John RQ-ld, director of 'the Colorado Geo.
<br />logical Survey, warned that disastrous
<br />floods can be caused by much less rain. He
<br />said most of the Big Thompson deaths and
<br />property damage occurred after only 3 to
<br />4 inches of rain.
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