VIDEO: Itโs been 104 years since one of southern Coloradoโs most devastating natural disasters, the Great Flood of 1921. Starting on June 2nd and lasting until June 5th, Executive Director of Pueblo County Historical Society and the Pueblo Heritage Museum, John Wendt, tells 11 News, โWe had a number of microbursts, heavy rain and snow upriver on the Arkansas River.โ
Wendt continues saying, โ(It) raised the waters to the point where our 18-foot levees could not hold that water back and eventually (it) spilled over and washed quite a bit of Pueblo away.โ This disaster was devastating to Pueblo in many ways. For example, Wendt says, โIn terms of lives lost, our best estimate is 500 people killed, missing, washed down river.
โIn terms of businesses, it was about $19 million in damages, and this is 1921 money, so it was significant.” Obviously, it affected a huge part of Main St., a huge part of Union (Ave.), and at the time, there were a lot of railroad and freight yards in the area, so it actually did a significant amount of damage to freight and rail yards in particular.
โSo itโs a significant amount of damage to freight businesses, a significant amount of damages to any of the businesses that wouldโve been along Union (Ave.) at the time, (and) there are amazing pictures of storefronts that are just blown out.โ
