Fifty years ago this week, the worst disaster in Northern Colorado’s history took the lives of 144 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages throughout the Big Thompson Canyon. The Big Thompson Flood of July 31, 1976, brought changes in policy and everyday life to the region.
While the story of the Big Thompson Flood is one of human tragedy and a region changed forever, it also is one that showcases how the Colorado-Big Thompson Project and Northern Water had matured in the 20 seasons since the project was declared complete.
The floodwaters in the Big Thompson did more than destroy U.S. 34 and homes along the river. They knocked the Big Thompson Siphon off its moorings, destroying the key feature to deliver water to users north of the highway, including Horsetooth Reservoir, the city of Fort Collins and the farmland in Larimer and Weld counties that depended on it.
However, Northern Water’s office location in west Loveland allowed it to be used as a headquarters for distributing disaster aid and as a media staging area.
General Manager Gerald Phipps was able to offer Northern Water’s contingency fund to start immediate repairs on the siphon, and the Bureau of Reclamation vowed to have it rebuilt in 90 days. Eighty-eight days later, water flowed again from the Hansen Feeder Canal to Horsetooth Reservoir, in a new siphon that sat 10 feet higher than the previous one and painted green instead of the aluminum it displayed previously.
