If they have the gates up for an emergency release at the Livingston Dam, it means they are more afraid of the reservoir filling and topping the dam than they are of releasing the kind of flood in your picture on the residents downstream.
Dams that get topped usually don't last long afterward.
The fat lady hasn't left for the theater yet.
Most of the lake over here have emergency spillways, if it gets too high the excess spills over that. Of course that option doesnt not allow them to control flow for those downstream..its sort of a last resort.
"LAKE LIVINGSTON. Lake Livingston is on the Trinity River six miles southwest of Livingston in Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, and Walker counties (at 30°38' N, 95°01' W). Livingston Dam, owned by the City of Houston and the Trinity River Authority,qv is an earthfill dam with a concrete spillway and was designed by Brown and Root, Incorporated. The dam has a spillway crest elevation of ninety-nine feet above mean sea level. The reservoir has a normal capacity of 1,788,000 acre-feet, covers 82,600 acres, and drains an area of 16,616 square miles. Construction of the dam by Forrest and Cotton, Incorporated, began in 1966 and was completed in 1969. The reservoir is used for municipal, industrial, and irrigation purposes."
Earthfill dam..damn. I trust the completely cement ones more. Hopefully Rita wont stall upstream as predicted.