A THOUSAND YEARS IN THE MAKING: A LESSON IN RESILIENCE

In September 2013 a one in one–thousand year rainfall event drenched Boulder, Colorado in the United States. Ten people across the state died in the flooding. Meteorologists used terms like ‘biblical’ and ‘epic’ in their description of the flood which affected hundreds of thousands of people, and was the biggest airlift rescue operation undertaken in the US since Hurricane Katrina, damaging 19000 homes and destroying 2500 homes state-wide. Living in the direct path of the storm and having spent nearly five years of my early career as a municipal storm-water engineer in Auckland, I will share my perspective and lessons learned as one of those directly affected by the flood.