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To: CedarDave
What worries me is we may be on the verge of a spectacular failure like the Baldwin Hills Dam collapse in 1963--but on a VASTLY larger scale. And that right now threatens millions of lives and the potential damage could top US$2 TRILLION as everything downstream of Oroville Dam gets inundated with muddy water, the cities of Antioch west to Martinez are under threat along its shoreline, and we could have flooding threats in the Carquinez Strait, San Pablo Bay and possibly even the piers on the eastern shore of San Francisco.

That level of damage is enough to send the USA into a recession.

633 posted on 02/13/2017 2:04:46 PM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: RayChuang88; HKMk23
What worries me is we may be on the verge of a spectacular failure like the Baldwin Hills Dam collapse in 1963--but on a VASTLY larger scale.

There is little chance of that now that the water over the emergency spillway has ceased. But as HKMk23 said, if they hadn't stopped the flow, the emergency spillway could have been compromised possibly leading to a V-shaped release that could propagate south along the spillway top threatening the concrete spillway and maybe the dam itself. It would depend on the presence and strength of the underlying bedrock but as we saw with just a few feet of flowing water there was considerable erosion. Just imagine what 30 feet of hydraulic head would do!

Before that spillway is used again, it will have to be investigated including the properties of the subsurface material in the vicinity of that spillway. I expect there will be a drilling project to determine the depth and type of bedrock below the overlying jointed and fractured rock followed by backfill and cementing to the surface.

649 posted on 02/13/2017 3:24:27 PM PST by CedarDave (Proud member of Hillary's Deplorables class of 2016.)
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To: RayChuang88; maggief

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3524221/posts?page=630#630

And check Maggie’s posts; tons of info...

And this...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3524221/posts?page=654#654


673 posted on 02/13/2017 3:56:30 PM PST by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57, returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: RayChuang88
... the cities of Antioch west to Martinez are under threat along its shoreline, and we could have flooding threats in the Carquinez Strait, San Pablo Bay and possibly even the piers on the eastern shore of San Francisco.

I don't think it will come to that, causing flooding to the piers of SF. But if, just if, it came to that... keep in mind that SF Bay waters are just a couple of feet below street level at some piers at high tide. If water came over the Embarcadero Street surface then it would cause flooding into the BART/Muni subway tunnels which thousands of people use daily. I can imagine that authorities would evacuate the tunnels if they know a water surge is coming. Nonetheless, it would cause major damage to the subway tunnels (Muni tunnel is second level down, BART is third level below street level and dips under the Bay).

744 posted on 02/14/2017 1:01:59 AM PST by roadcat
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