A 35th anniversary remembrance service for more than 140 people who lost their lives in the Big Thompson flood of 1976 is planned Sunday evening at a memorial marker near Drake.
The flash flood on the Big Thompson River on July 31, 1976, swept away cars, flooded Loveland and washed out roads in Weld County. President Gerald Ford declared Larimer County a disaster area. A handful of victims were never found.
I remember my aunt was camping up there that weekend and left early because she was sick. I was pretty young but remember it like it was yesterday.
I was camping on Rollins Pass, (luckily) sleeping in my car the night of July 31, 1976, when the area was hit by the hardest rain I'd ever experienced.
When the rain hit, it was like being in a car wash -- instead of falling hard, it felt like it was spraying. I turned on the headlights to see the rain and watched a tent collapse from the ferocity of downpour.
And that was 30 miles from the Estes Park/Drake area.
The next morning, the only thing I heard on the radio was Highway 34 was closed by a mudslide. It wasn't until I got home and watched the news that I learned the full extent of the disaster.
I, too, remember it very well. We lived in Kiowa, Colorado at the time and sometime around this there was a talent show/melodrama in Kiowa...I distinctly remember the Big Thompson being mentioned there and at the church we went to.
At least something was learned from that and some things have been changed in the hopes it doesn't happen again.
