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One Memory of The Big Thompson Flood

I was sitting in the back of the Bronco as we were driving thru the mountains to get home, listening to the radio report that the Big Thompson Flood was possibly worst natural disaster to ever occur in Colorado. As we drove, I looked out the window, seeing the devastation and remembering the scary night we spent weathering the storm, just 2 days prior.
It was July 31, 1976 and it had been a bright and sunny afternoon when we finished our first performance at the Rodeo. I remember lots of excitement and electricity in the air as we cooled our horses and took a break before the evening show. I was part of a youth equestrian drill team, called the Westernaires, and there were about 60 of us chosen to perform at the State Centennial Celebration in Estes Park, Colorado.
As the afternoon turned to evening, the clouds started rolling in, ominously black. The staging area was becoming packed with all of the rodeo participants. The crowds were growing larger and the stands were filling up as hundreds of tourists and residents arrived for the evening performance. The weather reports had called for a typical afternoon/evening rain storm, but we were confident it would be gone in time for the evening performance.
It was early evening now and I was in the barn grooming my horse and getting ready to pick up my costume when the rain started. We only had about 30 minutes before the preshow would start. Our Calvary team and Stage Coach performers were already in costume and getting ready to line up to perform the Rodeo pre-show. After that our Varsity Red team would open the Rodeo with the Color Guard performance around 7:00pm By now the atmosphere was different somehow, and we could sense this was not the typical thunderstorm. The rain fell in fat drops from dark clouds that covered the sky.
We had a show to perform and the rain was not going to dampen our...