FLOOD 1997

November 6, 1997
at Colorado State University
Notes compiled By J. R. Richardson, Ph.D., P.E.

• Speaker: Dr. Jud Harper Director of Research, Colorado State University (CSU)

• Presented a video developed by the media relations center CSU
• Questions and goals of the conference:
• How do we more effectively meet the needs of the victims?
• Follow up restoration clean-up after the storm
• Could early warning systems have provided a better lead-time and resulted in less loss of life? CSU and city officials seem to have received some criticism for how the flood was handled.  CSU could have spent 2-millon dollars for flood protection strategies but did not.  Additionally the city considered CSU as a separate entity and did not have jurisdiction over CSU's property.
• What about early response / Action? Could the emergency teams (police, fire and dive rescue) have been more prepared for an event such as this.
• Rainfall and runoff on an urban watershed is a complex system.
• Was planning sufficient?
• Effect on CSU :
• 450,000 books in basement flooded
• Some books were moved to basement from upper floors during the remodeling of Library.
• Many CSU Buildings damaged or flooded.

• Speaker: Dr. Al Dyer Dean of the College of Natural Resources at CSU
• Over 100 water related courses taught at CSU
• Discussed the "Water Center" at Colorado State University.  Discussed the need to coordinate activities from throughout the university with the college of Engineering, Agriculture, and Natural resources forming the core of the water center.
• Talked about the possibility of making the Flood 97 conference an annual event?

• Speaker: Dr. Niel Grigg   Chair, Department of Civil Engineering at CSU
• Provided a prospective of the flood.
• Many aspects to the flood of 1997.
• Discussed Water Center at CSU.

• Speaker: Dr. Tom McKee, Colorado  State Climatologist , Department of Atmospheric Science, CSU
• With contributions by Nolan Doeskin, Odie Bliss, John Kleist, and Walt Peterson
• Over 300 observations of precipitation's (Bucket surveys).
• For legal reasons bucket survey locations had to be changed from street addresses to lat-long.
• Their estimates are slightly conservative (possibly low) since they removed many points with questionable accuracy.
• Weather station at CSU has recorded weather/precip since before 1900.
• Largest  prior 1-day event occurred in 1902 with 4-5 inches.
• The storm of July 1997
• Southern Weak flow of warm, moist air.  The motion was slow moved northward along the front-range.
• As warm air rose over the frontal boundary, rain occurred.
• On July 27, Sunday approx. 1.5 inches of rain occurred at CSU.  Further north (Laporte) had heavy rain in the range of 10 inches.
• Ground was wet with high antecedent soil moisture.
• On Monday, July 28, 1997 Rainfall began at approximately 1830 hours (5:30pm MDST) and ended approximately 2300 hours (11:00 PM    MDST).
• Highest intensities at the end of the storm.
• Center of storm located at approximately intersection of Overland Trail and Drake.  Approximately 10 inches of rain total.  At Horsetooth Reservoir, 5 to 6 inches of rain, and at College Avenue, approximately 2 inches of rain.
• For the two-day period, July 27 and 28, approximately 12 inches in cells at Overland Trail and Drake, near the town of Laporte, and further north along the front range.
• The rain had no lightning, no hail, and felt warm.
• The radar scans of the area with the two Doppler Radars in Denver and Cheyenne, WY and from the CHILL research radar were not that impressive due to the lack of hail in the cloud and subsequent low reflectivity.

• Speaker: Mr. Walt Peterson Dept. of Atmospheric Science, CSU
• From a broad perspective the storm was not spectacular but when we zoom in on the data very interesting things occurred in the storm.
• For the two-day period, three pulses of precipitation moved north and stalled over the city.  The first was on Sunday and the 2^nd and 3^rd occurred on Monday.  The 3^rd stalled, enlarged, and then moved down the watershed.
• After analyzing the radar data for several months, the rain-rate determined from the radar matched closely the gage data.

• Speaker: Ann Azari Mayor, City of Fort Collins
• Lives two blocks south of Taft and Drake.
• Flood warning on TV but otherwise had no information.
• Focused on the Human impact of the storm.  The flood may have been microscopic in history but large for the residents of Ft. Collins.
• We must learn to live better with risk.
• There is only so much that we can do.

• Speaker: Dr. V. Chandrasekar (Chandra) Department of  Electrical Engineering CSU
• Radar gives precipitation "at the speed of light".
• One of the graphics of the precipitation estimates from the CSU-CHILL radar referred to "gage adjusted data".
• Maximum rain-rate of approximately 5-6 inches per hour.

• Speaker: Mr. John Fischbach, City Manager, Ft. Collins
• Focused on the human and financial impacts of the flood.
• Flood severely stressed the City Resources.  Greatest impact between 10:00 and 11:00 PM July 28.
• City Park Lake overflowed.
• Confusion in command center.  CSU command center flooded and had to be moved to City Command Center.
• Trailers plugged bridge at College Avenue.
• $221,000 to clean trailer park and unplug bridge.
• $2.5 Million spent so far for clean up.
• 5 dead, 54 injured
• 1500 homes damaged
• 25-32 CSU buildings damaged

• Questions and answers before break.
• Most of the questions were non-technical from residents of Ft. Collins.  It was clear that the residents did not appreciate the level of protection afforded to them by the widespread usage of detainment. There were questions, which challenged the effectiveness of the railroad embankment.  Additional misunderstanding concerned the return period of the flood.

• Speaker: Marsha Hilmes, Floodplain Administrator,  City of Fort Collins
• Gave good talk on flood management activities.  This information is good to show how a community can effectively provide a higher standard of flood protection using creative strategies.
• Talked about discharge estimates by Lidstone and Anderson, AYRES, USGS and others.  Reasonable agreement was found between these independent assessments.

• Speaker: John Morris, Facilities Manager, Colorado State University
• Stressed that CSU did not have flood damage but water damage.  This is due to legal aspects of insurance claims.
• Approximately 1,600 cfs flowed eastward down Elizabeth Street, crossing Shields St., and entered the Moby Gym parking lot from Campus West.
• Flow turned to north and inundated the low area to the west of the Morgan Library, and flooded the downstairs of the Health Center where the campus security office was located.  Since this was the main dispatch center for campus police, the dispatch center was abandoned to the back-up response center at the City of Fort Collins.
• Flow ponded in the library/lagoon area to the west of the student center.  Water was approximately 6 feet up on the windows of the Lory Student center.
• A significant flow entered the west entrance to the student center, flowed through the basement of the building and exited through the bookstore entrance on the lower level at the northwest corner of the building.  The basement of the Student center was essentially a Conduit for releasing water from the lagoon.
• The walkway embankment to northwest of the student center overtopped by approximately 1 foot deep by 200 feet wide.  This weir flow combined with the flow exiting the bookstore, and flooded the Engineering parking lot, and the basements of A and B-wing of the engineering building.
• The water from the Engineering parking lot flowed eastward to the lagoon, flooding the Music building and the oval.
• The railroad tracks, paralleling College Avenue, and approximately 500 feet west, detained water and increased flooding of the oval area. Many buildings surrounding the oval including the occupational therapy buildings, the heating plant and others.
• The oval detention area released water to the east through a 12' high by approximately 8 feet wide underpass which is used as a bike and pedestrian access to the Main Campus of CSU.
• Water flowed through the South College Gym (Field House), and exited the University at College Avenue.  The area to the East of College Avenue and the University is a low area, which tends to slope to the South.  The flow from the CSU Campus was not contained in a drainage channel bot rather flowed eastward and Southward down the streets in this older part of town.   This flow joined with the Floodwaters of Spring Creek downstream of College Avenue (downstream of the Trailer Park).
• Damage to CSU infrastructure
• Over 200 faculty and staff offices inundated.
• 60 Graduate Student Housing Apartments Inundated (along Prospect, North side).
• 40 Buildings Swamped
• Bookstore with entire stock of text books for fall semester destroyed.
• CSU Library (425,000 volumes soaked).  Approximately 80% can be saved by freezing techniques at a cost of approximately $30.00 per volume, 2- to 3 years before books are returned.  Library had moved books from upstairs to downstairs prior to event.
• Estimated monetary losses
• Approximately $100 million
• 1/3 library
• 1/3 campus
• 1/3 other
• Response priority
• Protect People
• Accommodate Losses
• Get campus ready for fall classes ASAP
• Clean Up
• Minimize impact on fall semester
• Consultants hired quickly to assist because staff of university could not cope with the enormity of the disaster.
• Assigned a liaison to the press and to the insurance adjusters.


Speaker: Glen Levy, Battalion Chief, Poudre Fire Authority, Fort Collins, Colorado

• PFA has 12 fire stations in city.  Fire station #3 was directly downstream of College Avenue on Spring Creek and was knocked out of commission.
• As Battalion Chief, he had to make rapid decisions with very little information.
• Event severely taxed the system.  Prior to flood crews had battled two fires and were exhausted.
• Between 8:30 and 10:45, overt 100 people had been rescued from cars and flooded basements before the trailer park was destroyed.   No people were killed in their cars, which is unusual in these types of events.  This was due to extreme courage and extraordinary risks taken on the part of the PFA.
• At 9:15 PM CSU dispatch center went down and was moved to the city dispatch center.  Pandemonium and confusion abounded at dispatch.
• At the peak of the flood a 911 call came in approximately every 16 seconds.
• The City of Fort Collins was a City of islands making it very difficult to move around.  System was at wits end.
• At trailer park the floodwaters rose approximately 5.5 feet in 3 minutes.
• At 10:59:59 PM a call reported that a train was derailed just north of the trailer park.
• PFA was further informed that one of the cars of the train contained chlorine, a deadly gas.
• PFA did not realize the magnitude of the storm.
• 02:10 July 29, Final rescue was made.  But this was only the beginning; the PFA then went into recovery mode.  Approximately 172 people were missing (later, most were found alive). Only 5 deaths attributed to the flood were confirmed.
• Problems: The communication system broke down.  The PFA then went to discrete command operations located around the city.
• Presented a video approximately 5 minutes and was very good.

• Speaker: Dr. David M. Frick, Regional Vice President, AYRES and Associates, Fort Collins
• Spoke mostly to the flooding on the CSU Campus.
• Ironically, CSU had initiated a review of the storm water drainage for the CSU Campus prior to the flood.  However, no suggestions had been implemented.  A 1996 drainage study recommended some changes to the drainage plan, which would have cost approximately 2 million dollars to implement.
• The area to the west of the University is transected by the Larimer-Weld#2, the Pleasant Valley, and the New Mercer irrigation ditches.
• Reiterated the flood track through the CSU Campus discussed by John Morris.
• Spring Creek drainage
• Using the bucket surveys of precipitation, extrapolating the storage curves of the detention basins in spring creek, and using the existing SWMM model of spring creek, Dr. Frick simulated the July 1997 flood.  Calibrated the model with modified inputs to within 0.1 foot of recorded high water marks.
• All of the discharge data agreed with indirect measurements by USGS and Lidstone and Anderson.
• Results indicated that the peak discharges were approximately 10 times the anticipated 100-year flood event and greater than the estimated 500-year event.
• The lessons learned are that we need to plan for extreme events.  That the 100-year storm or flood is not an adequate estimate for critical events.

• Speaker: Dr. Wayne Charlie, Civil Engineering, CSU
• Spoke to the effects and occurrence of historic floods in Fort Collins and on the Campus of CSU
• Campus floods in 1938, 1951, 1997
• Poudre River Floods in 1904, 1951, 1988, and 1992
• Lots of old archive photographs from newspaper.

• Speaker: Mr. Mark Smith, Surface Water Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Colorado
• Surveyed high water marks and performed indirect discharge measurements.
• Two primary sites, one at the low drop control structure near the entrance to the BNRR detention basins, and one at the Union Pacific bridge crossing near EPIC center .
• At entrance to detention area, flow was split into three regions, one over the drop structure, 1 to the right overbank area, and 1 down the road.

• Speaker: Eve Gruntfest, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, CSU.
• Disaster survey, Preliminary impressions
• Most concerned about the socioeconomic aspects of the flood.
• Called for a cultural exchange program between meteorologists and hydrologists.
• Interested in combining radar and runoff models.
• .Flash Flood Laboratory
• Discussed Scale problems

• Speaker: Dr. Ken Eis, Deputy Director Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, CSU.
• Spent a great deal of time discussing the Water Center at CSU.
• Interested in combining radar and runoff models.
• .Flash Flood Laboratory
• Discussed Scale problems in Hydrology

• Speaker: Chris Adams, Research Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere,
• NWS/FEMA Training project.
• Link Atmospheric Science, hydrology, geography, sociology, public administration, psychology.

• Speaker: Kevin Oltjenbruns, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, CSU
• Topic: Emotional Cost of the Flood

• Speaker: Dave Greiling, Executive Editor, Fort Collins Coloradoan
• Topic: Media Response During the Flood
• Reporters are humans and residents of Fort Collins also.
• Disaster affected the reporters.
• Media played key role in getting disaster relief.

Speaker:  Panel Discussion
Panel: Tess Hefferman, Neighborhood Resources Manager of Fort Collins; Chris Adam, CIRA; John Morris, facilities CSU.

• How do we understand what was happening NOW?
• Must live with a degree of risk, this requires education and outreach.
• We think we are prepared, but when it actually happens?.
• "If I had of written a disaster scenario (for training) similar to what happened during the July flood, I would have been run out of town"
• The most important post flood advice is to take pictures, pictures, and more pictures.
• Emergency donations from the community had to be managed so that victims needs could be effectively matched with donors calling in with resources.
• Floods happen HERE!
• Need to balance mitigation versus preparedness.
• "Warning is a process, cannot think of it segmentally"
• Community response was great - it bound the community.
• There is a need for individuals to be personally prepared for all types of events.
• Universities are not immune to disaster.
• The flood can be viewed as a "Call-To-Action" with CSU/Ft. Collins/ Larimer County cooperation and partnership
• Rethink the warning process
• Plan, plan, plan
• We need to share our experience and document lessons learned
• This was a national disaster
• Need to build "sustainable community resilient to natural hazards"
• 200 homes destroyed, 1500 homes damaged

• Questions and answers from audience
• Illustrated the misconception of the public concerning return periods of floods, usage of retention/detention, and how much a municipality can do to protect and serve the population.
• The public does not understand/appreciate the limitations that a municipality or county has in terms of resources.


Back to History page.

Back to Fort Collins Flood homepage