Flood events in Colorado in 2013 and 2014 have been recorded using aerial imagery- providing the City of Greeley with a valuable tool for assessing flood extent and for analyzing storm water infrastructure and improvements.
In September of 2013, Ayres Associates collected aerial imagery of the South Platte River and its tributaries near peak flood stage, including the Cache la Poudre River through Greeley. The imagery provided an overview of flood extents throughout much of the Front Range and has since been used extensively for the recovery efforts.
In June of 2014, the City of Greeley contacted Ayres Associates with a request to capture another major flood event along the Poudre River. In this instance, a flight crew was mobilized within 2 hours of notice to proceed and captured the flood extents for a 17 mile segment of the River.
The June 2014 event is considered by engineers as somewhere between a 10 to 50 year flood event. This was relatively minor in comparison to the historic September 2013 floods as a whole but this June 2014 flow in the Cache la Poudre River through the city was actually slightly larger and more damaging than in the September floods. The flow event was more damaging for a couple of big reasons: first, the June event had a longer duration and therefore filled more of the overbank storage and, in turn, caused
more flooding. Secondly, it is believed that some of the overbank infrastructure had been weakened and/or saturated by the previous 2013 event.
A previous aerial photography mission from fall 2012 represents normal conditions along the Poudre. Analyzing the imagery from all 3 missions provides stormwater managers and engineers with valuable tools for addressing improvements and focusing on recovery.
Read more about the 2013 aerial imagery project here:
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