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SCENARIO TO CONSIDER: DAM FAILURE & FLOOD ZONES

 

 

I’m sure many of us have looked up at the Castaic Lake Dam and wondered what would happen if it failed. Could an earthquake take it out? Could age, wear, and tear or poor engineering eventually cause it to fail? Could flooding overwhelm it like the Oroville Dam in 2017? The answer is sadly "yes," to all of the above. It can fail. Anything is possible. We should just expect it to and get ready for it.

The next question is: where would the water go?

This link will send you to the California Department of Water Resource's approved inundation maps if the dam were to fail: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10jp2sQJvvSi6HtEc-jl1zGwc-2a4MTdT/view?usp=sharing




Take your time to look at the map and become familiar with it. My first thought when looking at these maps was relief because my home wasn’t in the flood zone but then I realized that almost every possible evacuation route is in the flood path. I would expect the freeway to be heavily damaged from the failure of the dam. So just because your home is not in the flood path doesn’t mean you are safe from disaster.

Here in Castaic we only have one major grocery store and it could be overwhelmed quickly during an emergency. As you can see on the map Ralph’s grocery store is in the flood path. So, with the store flooded and/or overwhelmed, leaving empty shelves or damaged goods, and the roads into Castaic damaged, I imagine it would be very difficult to get food here. This is another reason why it is essential to have the water and food supply needed to sustain your family for a long period of time.

Just like you can’t predict a disaster, you also don’t know where you and your family will be when disaster happens. If your home is in the inundation zone, make a plan to get to high ground. Keep thinking of various scenarios and try your best to prepare for them.

Would you be ready if told to evacuate if flooding was anticipated? Watch this video about the Oroville Dam flooding in 2017, it shows the panic of evacuation, with hours of traffic and people grabbing things at the last minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quh6fX57YxY&t=270s

 


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