For Eleanor Bell

Thirty three years ago today, my birthmother and her husband died in a flash flood in Colorado. The flood made the national news, and several documentaries have resulted from the tragedy. Meteorologists have learned a lot from this particular flood, and if there is a silver lining to the dark cloud that killed so many, perhaps the lessons learned have saved others. River gauges that transmit data via satellite offer real time warnings today, you may have even seen one before-they are fairly common along riverbanks. Many lives have been saved by the advanced warning of flood conditions that these gauges provide and it is a direct result of the Big Thompson Canyon disaster on July 31, 1976. About 145 people died in the flood, which swept through the canyon without warning, turning an ankle deep creek into a 20 foot wall of water and debris.

My birthmother died instantly. Her body was found weeks later miles downstream. I was 15 at the time, living with my adoptive family. I had no knowledge of this event or the implication it would hold for my future. I found out about this when I found my birthfamily in 1989. My brother's wife, from my birthfamily, was kind enough to take me to the site where my mother was found and up through the canyon to her old homeplace in Drake. My brother was in the Navy in CT at the time and flew back to Colorado to help in the search and to support his sister. My sister on the very day of the flood, had given birth to her son, the first grandson. My birthmother had been to the hospital to see Ben for the first time, and were on their way home when they died. For my sister, this day is extremely difficult and personal, as you might expect. She gained a son, but lost her parents.

It is my personal belief, based on radio transcripts and a timeline I created by survivor accounts, that Officer Hugh Purdy had stopped to help my birthmother and her husband when the road ahead of them was washed away. The radio transcripts reveal that he stopped to help a couple in a truck. Their truck was never found. I believe that the three of them died in the same moment, at the same place, just east of Drake. The canyon walls were steep there, and there was no where to go. There is a memorial in the canyon for the victims of the flood, and for Officer Purdy. If you are on your way up to Rocky Mountain National Park via Loveland and Estes Park, you will travel through Big Thompson Canyon. Perhaps you will find time to stop and remember those who died.

This page has a list of the dead:
http://www.idreamof.com/disaster/vic_btc.html

This page has a very nice flash media presentation of the flood:
http://www.coloradoan.com/news/thompson/

This page has a few stories and eyewitness accounts:
http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Tech/Nature/Disasters/Floods/76July31-Big_Thompson.asp