[crz]

The St Francis dam disaster..

I looked and see they still have not paid any attention to the parking lot side of that spillway. Thats where it will breach if it does.

I think they will still be able to release enough out of the primary discharge to prevent any water from going over that EM spillway.

They have to prevent ANY water from going over that spillway, PERIOD.

[TXnMA]

"I looked and see they still have not paid any attention to the parking lot side of that spillway. Thats where it will breach if it does."

Right on!

Construction of that parking lot for boat ramps -- and the idiotic rock-based road (aka dam) literally directly across the spillway for access to it -- was some of the stupidest "enginering" I have ever seen.

They took a questionable spillway design and turned it into a guaranteed disaster. And, -- as you mentioned -- the "repair" efforts so far have ignored the designed-in vulnerabilities on the parking lot end of the spillway -- and have made the problems they're trying to fix even worse -- if water ever goes over that spillway again.

Sheer idiocy! (I'm considering posting an illustrated thread on that subject...)