My body is still in Tennessee today but my heart and mind are with friends, colleagues and relatives in Colorado.
I was living in Allenspark in 1976 when 8 inches of rain fell in one hour (and more than 12 inches in less than 4 hours) over the Big Thompson watershed to the north of us. The 20-foot wall of water that scoured the canyon that night took around 143 human lives and left us all with memorable images of the power of natural forces in extreme weather.
Just six years later, on July 16, 1982, the Lawn Lake dam -- an earthen structure high in the same larger watershed in Rocky Mountain National Park -- collapsed. As the flood water hit the Cascade Dam a couple of miles downstream, it too collapsed. This flood killed 3 people and did about $31-million in damage to Estes Park and communities further downstream.
An alluvial fan of debris was created as Lawn Lake flood waters broke out into Horseshoe Park [Photo credit: U.S. Geological Survey]
As a former active member of the Boulder County fire and emergency services community, I trained with and had many friends among the mountain fire departments such as Four Mile and Lefthand Canyon that are no doubt very busy today with too much -- rather than too little -- water, and have suffered some painful losses in their communities with this flooding.
If you have travelled any of these canyons that shuttle water out of the Rocky Mountains to the valleys below, you may have seen "climb to safety" signs spaced out along the routes. Placement of signs, upgrading flood watch protocols and, in Rocky Mountain National Park, the removal of old dams following these major events reflected the sharper attention to flash flood potential and its deadly consequences.
I hope that efforts taken back then to improve safety of citizens and emergency response in flood conditions gave Boulder, Larimer and other Colorado counties a better chance to avoid loss of life over the past couple of days. I hope that the lives lost so far in Boulder County will be the only ones, and that preparation for such events by first responders and law enforcement officers will help them stay safer as they do their jobs for their communities in these 2013 floods.
I have photos of Big Thompson and Lawn Lake flood damages but have not scanned them from slides yet. If I can find them, I'll post an update to this post.
Stay safe, everybody!
Here are some links to coverage of Colorado flooding:
Colorado Flash Flood Update: Boulder Evacuations, Mudslides, Deaths (LIVE BLOG, PHOTOS, VIDEO) - The Weather Channel, 9/12/13
Colorado flooding: 3 killed; flood waters force evacuations, destroy roads - KUSA Channel 9 coverage
Flood Emergency in Colorado: 3 Dead, Homes Evacuated, Drivers Stranded - The Weather Channel, 9/12/13
Flash floods wash away homes, kill at least 3 near Boulder, Colorado - NBCNEWS.com, 9/12/13
Colorado Flash Flood: Heavy Rains In Boulder Claim At Least 1 Life (VIDEO/PHOTOS) - Huffington Post, 9/12/13
Boulder flood: 2nd death confirmed as heavy flooding continues across county - Boulder Daily Camera, 9/11/13 with update on 9/12/13
Emergency Status Updates Page at Boulder County Office of Emergency Management
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