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<br />001105 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />There is no way 'to know when the next flood will coine to 'the South <br /> <br /> <br />Platte River. Probably not tomorrow. Possibly not next year. Maybe <br /> <br /> <br />not for five, ten, or more years. No one knows for sure. So the <br /> <br /> <br />people of the South Platte sit on a powder keg with no way to know when <br /> <br /> <br />it will explode -- when the floods will come next. Bu't, the June 1965 <br /> <br /> <br />floods are a shocking reminder that floods will come -- that the powder <br /> <br /> <br />keg will explode. <br /> <br /> <br />Only construction of well-planned, multiple-purpose dams, such as <br /> <br /> <br />'the Bureau of Reclamation's TWO FORKS and NARROWS Dams, along with Corps <br /> <br /> <br />of Engineers' flood control dams, such as Chatfield Dam, will succeed in <br /> <br /> <br />defusing the powder keg. <br /> <br /> <br />Why is Colorado's Sou'th P1a'tte River Basin so flood prone? The <br /> <br /> <br />South Platte Basin stands "hh i'ts back to 'the Rocky Mountains, which <br /> <br /> <br />stretch from north to south as a lO,OOO-foot high wall. From the south <br /> <br /> <br />and southeast, moisture-laden, unstable, tropical air from the Gulf of <br /> <br /> <br />Mexico can Sweep far inland to the South Pla'tte River and impinge on the <br /> <br /> <br />wall of the Rockies. At the same time, the relatively cooler, drier, <br /> <br /> <br />stable air can sweep down from the northern plains. When these air <br /> <br /> <br />masses with totally different characteristics meet in the South Platte <br /> <br /> <br />area in head-on impact, deflected and hemmed in by, the Rockies on the <br /> <br /> <br />west, the instability of the moist air from the south is triggered into <br /> <br /> <br />unbelievable violent downpours. The puny, silt-clogged tributaries to <br /> <br /> <br />the South Platte River suddenly become raging, out-of~bank, monsters <br /> <br /> <br />spreading devastation. <br /> <br /> <br />The floods will come again to the South Platte Basin and bring <br /> <br /> <br />damage measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. As memory of <br /> <br />2 <br />