Fort Collins flood 1997: Comprehensive view of an extreme event

The July 1997 flood in Fort Collins was caused by the heaviest rains ever d ocumented over an urbanized area in Colorado, and offers a data base and mu ltifaceted set of lessons about flood planning, mitigation, response, and r ecovery for engineers, flood managers, and urban officials. The storm dropp ed 10 to 14 inches in 31 hours and some peak discharges greatly exceeded pr ojected 100-year and 500-year flows. Five people died, 54 were injured, abo ut 200 homes were lost, and 1,500 homes and businesses were damaged. Damage s at Colorado State University were about $100,000,000, including catastrop hic losses to the library. The paper summarizes the flood experience and pr ovides lessons in five categories: urban drainage and flood control, risk m anagement, mitigation, flood response, and public involvement.