Newly updated floodplain maps for the residential area north of Vallecito Reservoir hint at the inevitable: Human development eventually will be pushed out. ‘Mother Nature is going to overtake this valley one day. It's that simple,’ Butch Knowlton, director of La Plata County's Office of Emergency Preparedness, told a group of about 50 residents who gathered Tuesday at the Vallecito Community Center to view the new maps. The new maps, which update the 1981 maps used by the county, expand the boundaries of the 100-year floodplain. According to the county, 159 homes were in the 100-year floodplain under the old maps, versus 326 under the new configuration. 

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