[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That is a massive dam...reassuring ...

The Spillway might go out but the dam Will survive .

Downstream stuff will get damaged of course.

[21twelve]

I was talking to a guy the other night. He chuckled about all the hoopla about the auxiliary dam. “That axillary dam is there to protect the dam [the main dam], it isn't there to protect the people downstream.” He explained how the ones he did were designed to fail to release the pressure before a catastrophic event happened. I did some further reading, and it sounds like some auxiliary dams ARE meant to fail, and others - perhaps not.