Recovery Efforts in the City of Evans
The Takeaways
Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place before a disaster strikes so you do not have to create a plan while recovering.
Invest in planning efforts beforehand to help enhance communication and organization during a disaster event.
Create redundancies in case critical infrastructure becomes inoperable.
The Case Study
In September 2013, Colorado’s Front Range experienced a major flooding event that caused extensive damage. One of the areas impacted was the City of Evans, a suburb of Greeley in North-Central Colorado. It is estimated that the City sustained $17 million in damage to City-owned property alone, including $2.5 million in damage to the City’s wastewater treatment plant, which forced the City to shut down sewer services to residents and businesses for a total of eight days.
Evans lies along the banks of the South Platte River. The South Platte has many tributaries, including the Big Thompson River and Boulder Creek, both of which experienced unprecedented precipitation from the same storm system. Officials began asking residents in the floodplain to voluntarily evacuate their homes on the morning of September 13th as officials monitored conditions upstream and noticed the river rising. Within 12 hours, the river surpassed the flood stage, which is 10 feet for Evans, and crested at nearly 19 feet by the next day. Miraculously, no one was injured or died from this massive flooding event.
The City of Evans issued several emergency ordinances following the 2013 floods. For instance, one imposed an emergency building and development moratorium in the floodplain and any other areas affected by the floods for six months. The City also called in the National Guard to come and assist with emergency management in the aftermath of the floods. Evans encountered many roadblocks and obstacles on the pathway to recovery, as detailed in the City’s After Action Report. The largest challenge reported by City staff in the aftermath of the floods was communication between City staff, as well as issues surrounding preparedness, response, and recovery from disasters. Now, the City has developed a Restoration Plan for the South Platte River that includes many resilience tactics aimed at preventing a repeat of the damage that occurred from the 2013 floods.
Want more information?
Check out Larimer County’s Long-Term Recovery website.