Sixty-three-year-old Darrell Johnson told the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper Friday that he didn't know he had been counted among the 144 victims of the Big Thompson Canyon flood until a resident called him last year.
Barb Anderson said residents didn't want his name on a memorial plaque without proof he was dead.
Johnson and his family had decided to leave their shabby cabin the morning of the flood after just one night. A few hours later, the resort was washed away.
How Johnson ended up on the victims list remains a mystery.
He now directs funerals in Oklahoma City and acknowledges he was lucky to get the bad cabin.
Map of the Big Thompson River 
An American man presumed to be dead after the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood has been found alive in Oklahoma City.

Barb Anderson, a Big Thompson Canyon resident, was researching the flood victims and found Darrell Johnson, alive and well, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Sixty-three-year-old funeral director Darrell Johnson told the ''Fort Collins Coloradoan'' on Friday that he didn't know he was on the victim list until Anderson told him last year. He was one of the six reported missing and the 144 killed, which has now been amended to 143.

Johnson and his family were living in a Sleepy Hollow resort cabin in Estes Park, but decided to leave after staying for one night. A few hours later, the whole resort was washed away.