Mansfield Dam at Lake Travis near Austin, TX. Photo Credit: JimNtexas (Flickr)
Related Link:
damsafetyaction.org
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With the hurricane season hitting high gear there’s growing concern over the status of dams in Texas. Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies has the story.
August 30, 2010 · When hurricanes make landfall, the greatest damage isn’t from the high winds or from the storm surge, but from the massive amount of rainfall dumped inland.
That’s when Texas dams are stressed and needed to hold back swollen rivers. The state dam safety manager Warren Samuelson says the dams are up to the job.
“There is no dam that is in imminent threat of failure at this point in the state of Texas,” said Samuelson.
However, more than 1,700 dams in Texas as classified as "High Hazard Potential" or "Significant Hazard Potential," meaning their would be loss of life should the dam breach. And hundreds of these dams are in need of emergency action plans.
“All dams have issues associated with them, and the Emergency Action Plan is there in the event that something does happen – for whatever reason it might be, that the owner has a process in place to be able to notify the public and notify the appropriate warning officials, that there is something going on,” said Samuelson.
New Texas Safety regulations require Emergency Action Plans to be in place by the end of the year. A critical part of the Emergency Action Plan is an early warning system to alert people downstream of possible danger and an evacuation plan. |
