From September 9 through 16, 2013, catastrophic floods swept across Colorado's Front Range, forcing thousands from their homes and leaving entire neighborhoods underwater. In Longmont, the St. Vrain Creek burst its banks, causing nearly $150 million in infrastructure damage. The city rebuilt with resilience in mind, with much of its focus on reconstructing the river channel to be prepared for future flooding events.
"12 years after the flood, we've constructed channel improvements that can safely pass those large storm events, contain them within the channel bank so that we don't have flows out of bank," said Josh Sherman, a civil engineer with the City of Longmont's Public Works Department.
"Pre-flood, this channel was really not what it looks like today. It was narrower; it had really been from the beginning of the community, and farming, kind of pushed in. Like an irrigation ditch, more than a natural functioning stream," he said.
Sherman served as a project manager on Longmont's Resilient St. Vrain project, the city's master plan for channel improvements along the river. The idea is to redesign the river to better protect people and property from future floods.
Peter Gibbons, Longmont's Disaster Recovery Officer, says resilience is at the core of that work.
"At the highest level of resilience is the ability of a system to take an impact. And what we're looking at is how do we look at things like our water channels that flow through the city for how to take an impact, you know, remove the risks and disasters or as many as we possibly can," he said.
"And then apply that thought process to multiple other systems throughout the city. You know, how do we help our local businesses have less downtime from disaster impacts and hazards? How do we help our local economy, you know, improve? And then how do we increase our public safety by applying this resilience lens to all of those spaces?"
In recognition of its work in resilience planning, the United Nations recognized Longmont as the first UN Resilience Hub in the United States.
"What the UN is really building here is a way to connect communities that are thinking through this and actually taking action on it, and building these infrastructures that are disaster hazard resilient, because we know that we're in a world that has uncertainties in it," said Gibbons.
"So what we're looking to do is gain some control of those uncertainties and build a community that is not only hyperlocal, but then provides inspiration for kind of the global space so that, not only can we learn from other people, you know, we're in a space right now where we know what we know, but we want to know more. We want to know what else we can do, how, you know, where else we need to go with resilience, what else we need to build."
Not all of the work is visible. Josh Sherman said changes to utility infrastructure may not be obvious, but will make a big difference.
"We had several water lines that might have been suspended underneath a roadway crossing, so underneath a bridge, and that puts them at risk in a flood event to damage. Following the 2013 event, we've buried all of those utilities deeply under the channel so that they're not at risk of damage or of being broken, and where they can't be used or where they would need to be repaired after a large storm event."
Resilience planning isn't just about infrastructure. Gibbons says it's also about people. He says the city offers a Be Ready Longmont program that provides education to residents and businesses.
"It teaches people the importance of getting to know your neighbors, saying hi to everyone. And then also the things that you can do to prepare for a disaster... because it's such an important thing to, you know, wave to your neighbors, say hi to everyone, because it's part of your resilience as a community," he said.
Improved communication systems are another component of the city's resilience planning. In addition to sirens, Longmont has adopted reverse 911 calls and provides all emergency communications in Spanish and English.
Longmont's resilience planning now includes wildfire and climate change adaptation. Gibbons hopes other communities can take note of the need to rebuild with resilience in mind.
"Building back to pre-disaster conditions is a way to just experience the same disaster over and over. And we've taken a very intentional approach to making sure that we don't experience the same disaster over and over," he said.
Copyright 2025 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including KNDK.