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<br />M <br />an <br />c: <br />C\": <br /> <br />~,. <br />;' ~'- <br />'}.". . <br />-,;.~-j.;: <br /> <br />Most early accounts concentrate on flood damages occurring in <br />the Yuma area. Levee construction to provide flood protection <br />at Yuma was begun in 1902. The most dramatic incident related <br />to early Colorado River floods was the 2-year fight of 1905-1906 <br />to stop flows of the river through an irrigation cut leading to <br />the Alamo Canal and the Imperial Valley. unusually high flows <br />occurred on both the Gila and Colorado rivers during this period <br />and, at one time, the entire flow of the Colorado River was <br />actually passing through the irrigation cut. Ponding of the <br />diverted flows in the Salton Sink formed the Salton Sea. <br /> <br />With the completion of Hoover dam in 1935, control of Colorado <br />River floods up to an outflow of 40,000 cfs became possible. <br />If a flood equal in magnitude to the 1884 flood were to occur <br />again, it could be regulated sufficiently to reduce the peak <br />inflow of about 300,000 cfs to a peak outflow of 73,000 cfs. <br />Inflow records show that the floods of 1941, 1952, and 1957 were <br />the largest that have occurred since the construction of Hoover <br />Dam. In 1941, a maximum mean daily inflow of 199,200 cfs was <br />reduced to a maximum mean daily (mmd) outflow of 35,500 cfs. <br />During 1952, the mmd inflow of 122,000 cfs was reduced to a <br />mmd outflow of 30,900 cfs. In 1957, a mmd inflow of 124,000 <br />cfswas reduced to a mmd of 18,400 cfs. Each of these floods <br />would have caused damage estimated at many millions of dollars <br />to private property, public utilities and flood-control <br />structures, had Hoover Dam not been in place. <br /> <br />11 <br />