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~~~~~~~~~ september 1932 Devil’s River and Rio Grande River Floods Piedras Negras (7.64 inches), and Monclava, Coahuila (6.20 inches), on September 3. Devil’s River The Devil’s River gage data near Del Rio on September 1 was steady at 15 feet throughout most of the morning. Shortly after 12 p.m. the river rose to 18 feet, and in the next five hours it surged to a 30-foot rise. At 5:30 p.m. the river peaked at 48.4 feet. The 33-foot surge not only destroyed the gage but also dislodged and shattered the concrete building that housed it. Leading up to the flood, the average daily streamflow in the Devil’s River at Juno was holding steady at 73–76 cfs. The first full day of the flood records, September 1, registered an average daily flow of 94,200 cfs. On September 2 the Southern Pacific bridge over the Devil’s River went out at 3 a.m. Initially it was reported that the Central Power and Light plant was destroyed, supposedly leaving only remnants of the machinery, but, as it turned out, only the roof and upper rock walls were damaged. Seven people were stranded on the roof of the Central Power and Light plant overnight on September 1. The son of one of the trapped men used a rowboat to reach the plant and rescue the men. The highway crossing lost half of its concrete causeway, and three spans of the railroad bridge were washed out. The water also cut a new channel east of the causeway. Along the river from Lake Walk to a point a half mile below the highway, a pecan the flash floods of September 1932 were part of a large-scale rain and flood event throughout the Rio Grande River Basin that lasted for almost two months (from late August into October). That year, the September flash floods in the United States moved primarily down the Devil’s River, the Pecos River, and smaller streams in the area of Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and the western Edwards Plateau. Additionally, heavy rains hit throughout the Rio Grande River Basin into Mexico. The resulting floods on the Rio Grande produced a dramatic moment when several railroad workers became stranded on the International Bridge. Rainfall Late in August, showers spread northward from the southern end of the Rio Grande Basin. The first extreme rains showed up in Mexico at Múzquiz, Coahuila, on August 26 and in Texas at Fort Davis on August 27 and 29. Substation 14, the only formal rainfall site in the Devil’s River Basin monitored by the weather bureau at that time, received 7.66 inches on August 31 and 6.08 inches on September 1. Rocksprings officially reported 11.19 inches, but other nearby totals reached 16 inches. Robert Lee in the Colorado River Basin recorded 17 inches. In thirty-six hours, ending at 2 p.m. on September 1, Sonora received 11.07 inches of rain. Other high totals occurred at Barksdale (14 inches), Fort Clark (8 inches), A4481.indb 59 A4481.indb 59 1/18/08 1:51:04 PM 1/18/08 1:51:04 PM ~~~ sep tember 193 2 60 grove was completely washed away. Trees estimated to be more than ninety years old were lost. The Sutton County history book of 1979 reports that the “violent run off reduced the Devil’s River Valley, at that time one of the most beautiful rivers in Texas and one of the most prolific pecan producing areas on the earth, to a plantless pile of rock.” Moreover, H. L. Molyneaux, a Del Rio weather observer, called the floods the greatest in the region’s history. The International Boundary Water Commission also published a report on the inundation . According to the account, the Devil ’s River flood of September 1, 1932, was the greatest in North America for a stream of 1,000–10,000 square miles. Streamflow per square mile was calculated to reach 138.23 cfs from the 4,033 square miles in the basin. The peak flow was 557,500 cfs. The report concluded that the flood was the greatest on the Devil’s River in at least one hundred years. For the month of September 1932, the Devil ’s River discharged 896,000 acre-feet, which was almost three times the previously recorded high of 301,000 acre-feet in May 1925. The earlier peak annual discharge was...

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