Dam It

I'm probably all wet with this one and the scientific community is united in that fact.

After all, I'm not a government engineer and I don't even play one on this blog.

I think I need to fully understand why, other than giving Des Moines more than 12 hours extra time, the emergency spillway at Saylorville lake was utilized the way it was.

Per Roger Less, Army Corps of Engineers, the outflow from Saylorville was going to double (from 21,000 cubic feet per second to 42,000 cubic feet per second) when the 6 foot high gates on the emergency spillway were lowered.

It would seem to this untrained observer that gradually increasing the outflow from the primary spillway (by say 10,000 cubic feet per second) it could have lessened the strain on the emergency spillway and sent less water down to Des Moines and beyond.

It could have possibly lessened the destruction, downstream of the emergency spillway outflow, to the surrounding road and area (pictured from 1993).


















I do have a vested interest since my mother lives in the Union Park neighborhood.

Speaking of 1993, I heard WHO/TV 13's John Bachman and Weather Wienie Ed Wilson allude to that flood as an overnight sensation.

Check the time line.