Otero County Flood Response Plan (FRP) –
Colorado Water Conservation Board
Otero County, Colorado

 The towns of La Junta and North La Junta have been inundated in the past by flooding of the Arkansas River. In 1999, a 25-year flood inundated the 100-year flood plain driving over 300 people from their homes. Both towns suffered from ineffective decision-making, communications and coordination during the event. HDR meteorologists developed an integrated and comprehensive FRP that addressed and remedied these chronic problems.  One-on-one interviews were held with County, Town and State agencies in order to ascertain standard operating procedures with respect to flooding events. Meetings were also held throughout the project to keep County, Town, and State agencies, as well as the public, informed of the project’s status.

HDR meteorologists conducted numerous interviews with members of the emergency response community and a flood exercise and workshop was conducted to clarify and refocus community response to proactive flooding actions. Coordination between County and Town agencies was established and a spirit of teamwork was instilled.

HDR meteorologists identified that while the 100-year floodplain was flooded only a 25-year stage height and discharge was noted identifying the need for a re-surveying of the river.  This development initiated teams of experts to develop solutions in using the available river stage and discharge observations to create effective flood warnings.  HDR meteorologists attended meetings with the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast office in Pueblo, Colorado to identify means of using NWS Doppler Radar more effectively in elevated terrain situations, providing better radar rainfall estimates and improved wording of NWS flood statements to local communities. 

Levels of preparedness, identified in Figure 1, were developed that contained agency pro-active flood related actions. These levels of preparedness were prompted by NWS predictions and observations of potential and imminent flood threat. Color-coded stage gauges, keyed to the preparedness levels, were established along the length of the Arkansas River through the County and observations are taken by experienced volunteer "river watchers". These observations are sent to the County emergency operations center and town dispatch centers to assist in flood prediction in downstream areas of the county. The color-coding relates stage height at the observation point to predicted inundation in the downstream areas at risk.