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Dam

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Clear air mode. Flash flood warning.

The warning box encompasses areas to the east of Oktibbeha County Lake Dam. The dam is in imminent risk of failure. County officials are working to relieve pressure on the dam. Forecast to rain again this afternoon.

12 Responses

  1. Out of one emergency into another!
    If you’re not affected, some of your neighbors no doubt will. If not close neighbors, at least your community.
    This is a good time to be wrong. I hope they are.

    1. Me too but it’s not looking good.

      It’s not that the water– which rose over an inch overnight– will top the levee. It’s that the bottom of the levee is giving way. There are mudslides and washouts. If it fails, the lake literally rushes out.

      If that happens– let the politics begin. We TOLD you something needed to be done. (It’s already starting.)

      Not my county, thank goodness.

  2. “Not my county, thank goodness.”

    That’s good news for you…but…obviously…bad news for somebody. Still…glad it isn’t you!

    Is it somebody’s _fault_? or is it just one of those things? I understand what you’re saying about the politics…and you’re right. The question always is whether it’s someone’s _fault_ or was it ignorance? did someone cut corners? was material faulty? was it too old? so many questions that need to be answered. And at least in California we have dry times of year – you folks have rain/water flow all year round!
    Have you any idea when the dam was built?

    1. I have seen write-ups in local and state newspapers dating back to 2015 about the structural issues. More than anything it’s a head in sand thing. That and money. And politics. Of course, if it blows it will now longer be ignored and it’s going to cost A LOT more money than if they’d done something last year.

    1. Heh. See new post. Local’s think it’s no big deal.

      We lived in eastern NC. One year three hurricanes came within about two weeks of each other. The last one, Floyd did horrific damage. Flooding wiped out the main power plant which had been built in a 500 year flood plane b/c you know, it hasn’t been 500 years yet.

  4. “…b/c you know, it hasn’t been 500 years yet.”

    Nice to have a schedule to plan on, right?

    How long ago was the dam on the lake built?

  5. Oh yeah…and why is there a dam in the first place? flood control? water conservation? lakes are nice for vacationing and increases tourist traffic??

    1. This is a reservoir. You are now very familiar with how much rain fall we get. While it probably once was a lake, I’d bet it was reconstructed for flood control– so 60s sounds right. Yeah. Probably the dam is flow issues. But if I am understanding things, it’s the . levee that’s failing. Wouldn’t be surprised to discover it’s an Army Corp project.

      Search engines are awful these days

  6. “While it probably once was a lake, I’d bet it was reconstructed for flood control…”

    I wonder…assuming it was built in the 60s, and it was a lake built for flood control…has it been dredged in the years since? I’m wondering if the silt has built up so that the quantity of water is roughly the same, but the level is higher (especially against the dam), but part of the height is silt. In other words, has it been maintained? flood control means a lot of water each year, plus a lot of other stuff probably comes with the water!

    1. I have no idea. For all I know it might have been built much earlier than that. I do know how the county government is structured. The county engineer would be responsible for maintenance and inspection. The emergency management office for things like this. But all of those people and offices answer to the county board of supervisors. There are five, they are elected, and they serve four year terms. The supes control the county budget and are very concerned about being reelected. Plus that area of the county is not exactly affluent, as a whole.

      As I said, I’ve been doing some back reading and the supervisors for that district, the engineers, et al. have been warning about this for years. They even dropped the level of the lake. I think a lot of it might come down to hey– voters. Would you like some more paved roads? Or should we use this money to fix the levee? Bear in mind also that there are a lot of lakes around here. This one is okay but there are nicer ones. It’s not like a lot of folks really care about it.

      We will see what happens.

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