Remembering the Big Thompson Canyon Flooding of 1976

A generation ago: Big Thompson Canyon Flooding of 1976
Wikipedia article

Excerpt:

On July 31, 1976, during the celebration of Colorado's centennial, the Big Thompson Canyon was the site of a devastating flash flood that swept down the steep and narrow canyon, claiming the lives of 143 people, 5 of whom were never found. This flood was triggered by a nearly stationary thunderstorm near the upper section of the canyon that dumped 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain in less than 4 hours (more than 3/4 of the average annual rainfall for the area). Little rain fell over the lower section of the canyon, where many of the victims were. Around 9 p.m., a wall of water more than 6 meters (20 ft) high raced down the canyon at about 6 m/s (14 mph), destroying 400 cars, 418 houses and 52 businesses and washing out most of U.S. Route 34.[5] This flood was more than 4 times as strong as any in the 112-year record available in 1976, with a discharge of 1,000 cubic meters per second (35,000 ft³/s).

Comment: We've driven down that canyon

Was Explo '72 the "Christian Woodstock"?

The Christian Woodstock

Excerpt:

Explo .... saw evangelicals shedding some of their cultural conservatism. Every night, Christian rock music had the delegates in the Cotton Bowl swaying and singing before Mr. Bright or Mr. Graham took the stage. On the final night of the event, tens of thousands of other Dallas residents joined the students for a "Jesus Music Festival" featuring the music of Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. The young people in attendance danced to the music and pointed their index fingers to the sky in the "one way" symbol of the Jesus Movement.

Looking back, it is hard to appreciate just how revolutionary these steps were for evangelicals in 1972. Crusade's Mr. Bright, one of the most influential evangelicals of the post-World War II generation, had long rejected rock music -- along with long hair and dancing. Less than a year before Explo, he told a reporter that rock 'n' roll "wasn't for us . . . because of the complaints of ex-addicts." At the time, conservative evangelicals strongly associated rock music with drug abuse. Mr. Bright's son Zachary remembers telling his father: "You can have a conservative view of music and keep what worked for you, or you can win [young people to Christ]." "I'd rather win," Campus Crusade's president responded.

The organization's embrace of rock music at Explo '72 went a long way toward revolutionizing evangelicalism's relationship with popular culture. Only a few fundamentalists seriously swim against the cultural tide today. Explo may not have changed the world, but it changed American evangelicalism.

Comment: Article is about how Mike How Huckabee became "a hip evangelical politician". I was with Campus Crusade for Christ in '71-72, but left before Explo '72.