Debris clogs the bridge on W. Mississippi Ave., June 17, 1965. Across the South Platte River, bridges were knocked out or clogged and weakened by debris through south part of Denver area. (Bill Johnson, The Denver Post Library Archive)
Re: “Flood of 1965 brought new respect for South Platte River in Denver,” June 14 news story.
Your article was illuminating but fell short. I was stranded on the east side of Denver as the 1965 Platte River flood gobbled bridge after bridge. In 2005, I studied the event as part of my doctoral program at the University of Denver. It was plain to me then that any protection offered by the Chatfield Dam probably persists for only a short distance; a Big Thompson-scale (1976) storm parked north of the dam could still devastate parts of the river basin.
Especially disturbing was an area just south of Mississippi Avenue, where the river channel is narrowed significantly. There, high-volume flows would be much taller than elsewhere upstream. And yet, judging from the proximity of commercial structures, no zoning review has demonstrated much learning since 1965.
Gregory Iwan, Longmont
This letter was published in the June 18 edition.
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