The flooding that breached the levees of Vallecito and Grimes creeks on Oct. 11 and forced the evacuation of 390 Vallecito homes has been described as “unprecedented.”
Record flow rates fueled by record rains left the little valley awash, with recovery efforts expected to continue for months.
The event – which owed its debut to Tropical Storm Priscilla and, to a lesser extent, Tropical Storm Raymond – is a striking reminder of the power of Mother Nature.
But when compared with another destructive flood that inundated towns, drowned fields of crops and washed out miles of railroad tracks, the Vallecito flood hardly made a splash.
The 1911 Flood occurred 114 years ago on Oct. 5, 1911 on the Animas River.
According to the Animas Museum in Durango, “1911 was a wet year for southwest Colorado with heavy snows in the high country and heavy rains through the summer.”
A gentle rain began Oct. 5, the museum’s summary said. By morning, 2 inches of rain had fallen and the storm showed no sign of letting up.
The Animas Museum described the Animas River’s waters as “unstoppable.”
The river flowed at an estimated rate of 25,000 cubic feet per second, washing out railroad tracks and shutting the stretch of Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway’s railroad for nine weeks.
By comparison, the Animas River reached 4,860 cfs on Tuesday, less than a fifth the amount in 1911.
Matt Aleksa, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said the 1911 Flood was “way worse” than the flood that washed through Vallecito last weekend.
The only real comparable details, he said, are both events were caused by tropical storm systems that resulted in consecutive days of heavy rainfall.
He said 1911 opened with a strong winter and heavy snowpack. In the summertime, runoff combined with a strong monsoon season, and disaster finally struck in October when a tropical storm rolled through.
The soils were already saturated, meaning moisture from rain wasn’t absorbed into the ground and instead flowed over it.
In 1911, Durango received almost 3.5 inches of rain over 36 hours. Silverton received 4 inches of rain. Gladstone north of Silverton received 8 inches of rain, Aleksa said.
Between 2 and 4 inches of rainfall was measured in the Animas River Basin and 4 to 6 inches was measured at higher, mountain elevations. He said the Durango area probably received half the precipitation last weekend as it did during the 1911 Flood.
Aleksa said technology has improved since the early 1900s, but 25,000 cfs is a lot of water no matter how one frames it.
A lot of rain dropped by the remnants of Priscilla last weekend was sapped up by the ground, he said.
“It’s good to see the extremes,” he said. “This event was significant. We did have a lot of rainfall we don’t typically see around this time of year. Really, rarely see that much.”
The Durango Herald’s 2011 report reflecting on the 1911 Flood, referencing historical publications, including the Pagosa Sun and the Durango Evening Herald, said the 1911 Flood washed away more than 100 bridges and destroyed more than 300 miles worth of railroad tracks in every direction.
The flood sent 6 feet of water rushing down 15th Street in Durango and destroyed virtually every crop in the Animas Valley.
In all, the 1911 Flood caused an estimated $1.5 million, in 1911 dollars – or about $50 million in today’s dollars.
According to La Plata County officials, who had inspected 149 of the 390 homes in the Vallecito evacuation zone last weekend, most homes sustained driveway and landscape damage from the flooding last weekend.
Sarah Jacobson, La Plata County administrative analyst, said 40 homes had floodwater in their crawlspaces but no higher.
She said 20 homes sustained “minor water damage.”
According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, minor water damage refers to water inside a home below electrical outlets.
Three homes sustained major water damage, meaning water inside the homes was higher than electrical outlets, she said, and two homes were intentionally destroyed Oct. 12 to prevent them from collapsing into Vallecito Creek.
cburney@durangoherald.com
