Flooding

Imagine if it was all snow !

Sometime around 2 am this morning the Poudre river peaked at alomst 15 feet! Normal is between 2-3 feet. The CFS graph looks like it tops out at 7,000, but I heard reliable reports of over 11,0000 CFS

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_stats&period=2&begin_date=2013-09-06&end_date=2013-09-13&site_no=06752260

Poudre River in Fort Collins.

wankel7 wrote:Imagine if it was all snow !

The formula used by media here is 1" rain ='s 10" snow. Eldo would have got over 12 feet. A really big, shut down the city blizzard here is 36"

I think that with the scale of this calamity coming into clearer focus, the attempts at humor are immaturely placed.

I will gladly chip in however I can, even if it's for something as meaningless and insignificant as static rope for new tyrols in the canyon.

A little gallows humor is totally out of place but starting up a Kick Starter for replacing all those beautiful pieces of TAT is TOTALY appropriate.

Right.

Thanks for shouldering the burden of this worthy cause and for selflessly appointing...yourself...as this threads arbiter of appropriate comments.

Good luck to the Boulderites. They'll be OK though. They are, after all, ColoRADons.

Generic human wrote: I think that with the scale of this calamity coming into clearer focus, the attempts at humor are immaturely placed. I will gladly chip in however I can, even if it's for something as meaningless and insignificant as static rope for new tyrols in the canyon. A little gallows humor is totally out of place but starting up a Kick Starter for replacing all those beautiful pieces of TAT is TOTALY appropriate. Right. Thanks for shouldering the burden of this worthy cause and for selflessly appointing...yourself...as this threads arbiter of appropriate comments. Good luck to the Boulderites. They'll be OK though. They are, after all, ColoRADons.

Which is why I said "meaningless and insignificant" in regards to the tyrol replacements, followed by "I would rather it be for something meaningful to my fellow human beings."

4500 cfs for Boulder Creek. 23000 cfs for the South Platte.

Cherry Creek Trail was completely under water. To give you an idea of the severity, the "street" signs along the bike bath were half way under water.

Cherry Creek Trail as seen from Speer Blvd. Denver, CO. Thursday, 9/12/13

uk.news.yahoo.com/video/cra…

My sister works right there and told me Cherry Creek was that full, but that is something to see!

If you are not famiar with the area: there is a nice bike path right under that water. If you were riding your bike, your head would be a few feet under water (!).
So it's water around 10 feet deep, flowing twice as wide, when a normal flow is usually around 1 or 2 feet deep and only fills up half of that area.

Nuts. And in September, historically one of our driest months.

I think that rescuing people who choose to play in that [sewage laden crap] flood water would be extremely low priority for those that are already risking their lives to save people who are in danger.

Almost disrespectful of the situation in a way and arrogant, even if they are really good kayakers.

Tevis Blom wrote:I think that rescuing people who choose to play in that [sewage laden crap] flood water would be extremely low priority for those that are already risking their lives to save people who are in danger. Almost disrespectful of the situation in a way and arrogant, even if they are really good kayakers.

yep

Tevis Blom wrote:I think that rescuing people who choose to play in that [sewage laden crap] flood water would be extremely low priority for those that are already risking their lives to save people who are in danger. Almost disrespectful of the situation in a way and arrogant, even if they are really good kayakers.

I'm not competent to judge whether the kayakers are crazy or sane, but these are once in a lifetime water flows and I can understand how they would want to drop in.

haha, good point. If they feel it's worth possibly drowning, swallowing poop water, or getting beaned by a renegade boulder, these kayakers have my blessing to keep "getting after it". :) totally tubular dudes!

Timothy.Klein wrote: Nuts. And in September, historically one of our driest months.

Not that it will make anyone feel better, but the pedant in me is compelled to point out that Sep. isn't an especially dry (or wet) month--pretty average.
Bo precipitation.

To add to this somewhat inane forum (debating peak river levels- who gives a fuck?); if you're looking to climb in RMNP in the coming months, good luck if you don't already live in Estes.

We live on hwy 36 just above the destruction at the Elk Meadow Turnoff which is completely gone (both roads/all lanes for hundreds of meters) and will likely be a long,long time to repair. Hwy 34 and 7 into Estes don't look much better so access will be difficult for a long while. We'll let you know how the ice season progresses in RMNP and maybe you all could send up some food & beer by heli or horse in the coming months, much appreciated. BYOF/B if you stop in for a visit!

Leo Paik wrote:4500 cfs for Boulder Creek. 23000 cfs for the South Platte.

Leo,

Where did you get this data, and where was the reading for the South Platte taken?

Eli- back in 76 after the Big Thompson flood they created a dirt/rock road fairly quickly.

We lost a 1/2 mile section of route 4 in VT during Irene with some spots 40' deep where road had previously been. THey had it back open in three weeks due to quick action, no bidding, no impact studies and 24/7 work.

Skullybones, these were figured reports on the news and newspaper multiple times.

I'm not sure where they were measured. The Boulder Creek is probably down somewhere on the plains and is a peak number. The South Platte number is probably after the St. Vrain, Big Thompson, (and maybe the Poudre?) meet the South Platte.

Here's one report from Channel 7 news of "4,000 cubic feet per second" on 9/12/13.

Here's a second report of "water flows in Boulder Creek reached 4,500 cubic feet per second, more than twice the previous peak flow in 26 years of measurement, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Colorado Water Science Center."

Here's another report of "the creek was rushing at 5,000 cfs late Thursday night" 9/12/13.

I heard 2200 was the previous peak measure on Boulder Creek. There's a report in "2003 May 30 2,050 cfs."

There is a measuring station at 75th St for Boulder Creek (it's listed under South Platte). It was recording 3050 cfs at 19:15 on 9/15/13.

Here's a photo of the site from the USGS website:

75th St. site pre-flood.

A bit of googling:

The National Weather Service was "predicting water flows near Weldona to peak Sunday afternoon at near-record flows of 44,671 cubic feet per-second."

Most seem to report in terms of feet.

There's one weird report here "Channel 7 here in the Denver area has reported that the South Platte has flowed at up to about 500,000 cubic feet per second during this event. [Tom Yulsman hasn’t] been able to confirm that number yet, but the hydrograph above suggests this number may well be correct." Maybe that is out in Nebraska?

Mike Lane wrote:Eli- back in 76 after the Big Thompson flood they created a dirt/rock road fairly quickly.

86 days for opening it in '76 and the damage is worse this time plus they have hwy 7 and 36 that are both equally wrecked to fix.

Vermont is nice but those canyons don't look quite like these and there are 200' wide raging rivers (on 36 downhill from my house) still flowing where there was a small creek so it's going to be a while before they can even start work.