Lewisville Lake Dam Scare a Reminder of California Dam Emergency

A troubled dam. Concerns about failure. And talk of evacuation plans.That was the scare at the Lewisville Lake dam in 2015.Ultimately, the danger passed quickly. The dam wasn't compromised. And the Army Corps of Engineers continues to point out that safety systems worked as planned.Since the weekend, the Oroville Dam in Northern California has created a more serious panic as nearly 190,000 people were ordered to evacuate. There has been no disaster and some have returned to their homes. But officials have warned another evacuation is possible.Clay Church, a local Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, said he wasn't surprised that people were comparing Oroville and Lewisville Lake. But he was hesitant to make that connection and emphasized that people here aren't in danger."Our dams and lakes continue to function as designed," he said. "And they are designed to hold those floodwaters from a maximum storm event."Short of a "Noah-type flood," he said, the dams here are safe. Church said he couldn't say much about the Oroville Dam.The two dams have different ownership. The Corps operates the federally owned Lewisville Lake dam. The California dam is run by the state.Here's how they are different and where the two situations are similar.Lake Oroville Dam  Continue reading...