All of that water has to go somewhere, and in the case of Colorado's historic flooding, those waters headed east - right toward the South Platte and Greeley.
The South Platte River flooded its banks after unrelenting rains doused the headwaters of the St. Vrain (Longmont), Big Thompson (Loveland) and Poudre (Fort Collins) rivers. All three river basins drain into the Platte and forced floodwaters east, swamping several plains communities.
As the Earth Observatory writes:
The image shows that the flood has washed away roads, including sections of U.S. Highway 34. Farmland and a few developed areas are under water. Heavy rain caused flooding across the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains starting on September 11, and much of that water made its way into the South Platte River. The river reached a record 18.79 feet in the early morning hours of September 14. The previous record crest was 11.73 feet. Flood stage is 10 feet.
Evans absorbed the worst of it in the Greeley area, with several neighborhoods and the water treatment plant ending up under water - forcing a 'no flush' order. Another view of the flooding in Evans was captured from a news helicopter and posted to Twitter the day before the satellite images were taken.
Over Evans where a trailer park has a few feet of water in it. pic.twitter.com/xgiJnWx0UO
— Cody Crouch (@CodyCrouch) September 16, 2013
It wasn't just roads and buildings that were in the way, some of the many oil and gas wells that dot the landscape in Weld County were in the flood path as well.
H/T to NASA Earth Observatory and EarthSkyScience on Twitter.
