You would have to go all the way back 16 years to find a more intense rainfall event along the Front Range.
All the way back to 1997
this disaster is all too familiar for those who have lived in Northern Colorado. This situation prompts us to pause and reflect on the 1976 Big Thompson Flood, which impacted the entire canyon from Estes Park on down, as well as the 1997 Spring Creek Flood in Fort Collins. The Big Thompson Flood claimed 143 lives; five women died in the Fort Collins flood.
Our View: Human spirit will prevail in Northern Colorado | The Coloradoan | coloradoan.com
I am about to go for a bike ride along Spring Creek.
We are making these floods worse for us (written in 2001)
According to some experts including internationally reknown expert Dr. Gilbert White, the Boulder Creek drainage is considered among the most hazardous in the entire western United States due to the extensive development along the corridor and the potential for property destruction and loss of human life. While much has been done to map, mitigate and prepare for such an flood events, there are many businesses, schools and houses in the floodplains of Boulder Creek and its tributaries”
This is on another page
Living in or near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains makes flash floods an extremely serious concern. It is not a matter of “if” a major flood will happen but rather when.”
Euthanising enviro journalists may be the kindest thing we could do – and it will reduce their carbon footprint! 😉
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/history/floodhistory1.html
Reblogged this on CraigM350.
John Hickenlooper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hickenlooper
master’s degree in geology in 1980
Hickenlooper is a member of the gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[5] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
Unfortunately, it’s raining like a bitch again.
Boulder has experienced almost 30 major floods in the last 100 years and many more than that in the last 150. And yet Boulder council wants to build a civic center at the mouth of the canyon and municipalize the electric utility (from XCEL).
“After many decades of relatively frequent flooding in the early parts of the 20th century, Boulder has been on a lucky streak which had, until this week, lasted over forty years:
Serious floods have affected downtown Boulder in 1894, 1896, 1906, 1909, 1916, 1921, 1938, and 1969 with the worst being those of May 31-June 2, 1894 and May 7, 1969. The flood of 1969 was the result of four days of almost continuous rainfall (11.27” measured in Morrison and 9.34” at the Boulder Hydroelectric Plant three miles up Boulder Canyon from town).
This lucky streak led to concerns, such as these expressed in 2008:
Eric Lessard, an engineering project manager with the city’s utilities department, said it’s hard not to get complacent, because it’s been so long since the 1894 flood that inundated the city.
“That’s one of the biggest problems we have — we’ve been really, really fortunate in Boulder. We haven’t had any major floods in many, many years. It starts to give people a false sense of confidence””
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2013/09/against-100-year-flood.html
This interesting manuscript details over 40 major floods from Boulder Creek up to 1974 (p 44-). http://www.udfcd.org/FWP/F2P2_Reports/BoulderCountyHistory/Floods%20in%20Boulder%20County,%20Colorado%20%20%20%20Sherry%20Oaks.pdf
Years ago when some friends were moving to Estes Park, an old, wise friend of theirs said that if anyone built a Colorado house near a river or stream, it was only a matter of time until they were flooded.