Ironically, the ditch behind our house, running full just the evening before, is dry but for the merest of trickles. Running an approximate 25 miles, its mouth near Lake Estes and its tumultuous end at the Big Dam falls in Chasteen’s Grove, the river loses about a half mile in elevation. My mother always swore she saw someone clinging to a log that night. It's all destroyed," Jerry said. Then they were gone, leaving only wet rocks. He managed to scurry across to shore, where water moved homes like an angry child playing house, sparing some and smashing others. Families return to favorite campgrounds year after year. Big Thompson Flood of July 31, 1976 WE WILL NEVER FORGET….even now The 44 th anniversary of the 1976 Big Thompson Flood, will not be as usual. And when I did, it just swept us away. claimed 144 lives and caused $35 million of damages, 40 years later: Scores killed in 1976 Big Thompson Flood, How the Coloradoan covered the Big Thompson Flood in 1976, Big Thompson Canyon to close for 9 months, A look back at Coloradoan's coverage of the 1976 flood, Recovering after the 2013 Big Thompson Flood, Reporter remembers how Big Thompson Flood unfolded, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. © 2020 www.coloradoan.com. As the day wore on, the rain kept coming. Down the last stretch of canyon the churning froth of seemingly endless debris rushes headlong for the now much more massive drop of the falls. Mom and wife rode the storm out and were eventually rescued. Was the driver in there? I just forced myself up as hard as I could. “From then on, the story changes for me,” Pat said. Through unusual circumstances — or maybe it was meant to be — Milan was visiting when the flood struck. The most recent major flooding in Big Thompson Canyon occurred during a series of storms along the Front Range in 2013. Just tumble away into the violent white and then … more and more; pieces of lives coming to tumble and churn over the drop. Ealy quipped about how Jerry should have kept it hooked to the truck. We are missionaries, on staff with Cru. We were only there for a day. Is it wrong for Christians to say that Jesus is the only way to God? The canyon is packed with tourists, campers, fishermen, and locals whose summer cabins dot the canyon and its tributaries. I was living in Fort Collins then and was among scores of young men (sorry, women, those were different times) with strong backs who could be summoned in case of forest fires. It hadn’t even rained there. ONE YEAR LATER: Recovering after the 2013 Big Thompson Flood Trailers floated by, and Jerry was left imagining what could happen as he relived the trauma from 1976. When he landed at the evacuation center, he walked to the pinned-up list of missing men, women and children and saw his father standing there, peering at list and fearing the worst. The dirt road that continues around the corner at this point, up the canyon or across a bridge, stretched unmolested for only a few yards before becoming lost and uncertain under the lapping surface of the dark water. Thanks, Todd. Often it is little but. Such research and streamgage information are part of an ongoing USGS effort to reduce flood hazards and to increase public awareness. Follow him on Twitter: @pohl_jason. Only the turbines and concrete foundation remained. The same thing happened in the flood of 1976 — which claimed 143 lives in the Big Thompson Canyon — and the town rebuilt. Another spilled down the mountain onto a dome rock. Pat and Milan Karspeck ran in the rain to higher ground, eventually making their way to the safety of a neighbor’s house. Another Cedar Cove resident caught up in the flood, 60-year-old Patty Goodwine, is missing and presumed dead. DeWitt held his radio in one hand and a heavy-duty flashlight, the kind firefighters take into smoky houses, in the other. Tiny mountain tributaries become swollen rivers, rushing downwards laden with rocks, trees, and dirt. The biggest infrastructure casualty, however, was the City of Loveland's hydroelectric plant (rebuilt after the 1976 flood); the Idylwilde Reservoir was completely fill… on Monday, August 26th, 2013 at 04:30 and is filed under Autobiography, Best. If the log home builder could just throw himself and Ealy to the surface, they might survive. ( Log Out /  Mike and I were … An Amazon delivery van was carjacked Monday morning on a snow-covered street in Jefferson County and investigators are looking for the robbers. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! "Then Ealy went limp in my arms. “He was really watching over me that night.”. Lyle’s confirmation Bible. Click here to view the poster from the United States Geological Survey: In the early evening of July 31, 1976 a large stationary thunderstorm released as much as 7.5 inches of rainfall in about an hour (about 12 inches in a few hours) in the upper reaches of the Big Thompson River drainage. The flood 40 years ago nearly killed Jerry. In the summer of 1976, when I was 7 years old, the river I lived near – The Big Thompson – suffered a flash flood of unheard of proportions. I seem to recall a dog barking as we approached, protecting that small part of the familiar in a world gone mad. Water carried chairs from the kitchen to the living room, where they came to rest, nestled together. We happened to be in Colorado for our vacation jus a couple of weeks after the flood. "It was hard to breathe knowing my family was up here and not being able to get to them," he said. A dream of a massive fire that scared me to wakefulness with thunder and lightning in an otherwise empty house. If you’ve ever been to the Big Thompson Canyon and seen the Dam Store at its foot, you will think you have seen this dam and falls I am speaking of but you would be wrong. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2004, their son, then a senior in computer science at CSU, drowned while working out in the student recreation center pool. Tom Housewright. Her name was Useless. How can I be sure the Bible is really the Word of God. If your home is your home, you come back. He was underwater. Truss bridge over the Big Thompson river, looking towards Big Dam. If you live in a tornado zone or a hurricane zone, what are you going to do? I was 12 or 13 at the time and our family had friends that lived in the canyon. It happened almost instantaneously — and then it was gone. 143 people lost their lives in the rushing waters, five of whom were never found. When the river is flowing strong, the falls are an impressive sight. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! In other places in Colorado, rivers meander through tranquil valleys or stretch out over plains. Tintype pictures of great-great-grandparents. “I went fishing at Horsetooth (Reservoir) and was driving home and then there was all this water,” he sputtered. In 2013, Jerry was with his daughters out of the canyon when steady, drenching rain set off the flood. The water kept rising, forcing Jerry to climb from the trailer to the trees, higher and higher, until he made a "nest" as high as he could go. On Sept. 16, Harrington finally took one of those seats. This large amount of rainfall in such a short period of time produced a flash flood that caught residents and tourists by surprise. “There are a few people who were there we will call friends the rest of our lives,” he said. 2288: Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Improvement Act of 2010, H.R. The morning of Sept. 13, Harrington and others in the group found trout swimming in still water that the flood had formed. The river had run alongside the Honsteins’ house. I was living above Gene’s Tavern, just two blocks from the Larimer County Courthouse. Eventually, 144 people were declared victims of the flooding that night (although one turned up alive in 2008 in Oklahoma). When the call came, I was at the sheriff’s office almost immediately. The eyes of the neighborhood, hypnotized, watch the old bridge break free and go over the falls into memory. Despite having suffered no loss outside that of our faith in permanence, the incident permeated our lives and the lives of those around us – although not always, perhaps, in ways you might expect. The fire station was in the water’s path, too, and firefighters hustled to move extension cords, compressors, motor oil, fuel cans and anything else they could get their hands on. “We’ve got good people,” said Tom Housewright, 50, the manager of the Ace Hardware store in Estes Park. All told, Colorado's deadliest natural disaster claimed 144 lives, injured scores of others, and permanently altered memories and landscapes alike. In 1998, Dianne and Lyle Honstein built their own home — fire-resistant with a cement roof and steel deck — on that same property, out of the floodplain. Sign up for our family and ministry newsletter eMails and prayer requests. 10 YEARS LATER: Reporter remembers how Big Thompson Flood unfolded, "People ask, 'Why would you want to go back there? 6462: Water and Agriculture Technology Economic Revitalization Act of 2012, Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP), Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Improvement Act of 2009, Reneweble Water Resources to Front Range project, S. 1215: Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, S. 1321: Water Accountability Tax Efficiency Reinvestment Act of 2009, S. 1417 and H.R.

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