Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Trinity Continues To Rise With Inadequate Levees Threatening Downtown Dallas

I saw that which you see here a few minutes ago on Facebook, via Elsie Hotpepper.

Apparently downtown Dallas is in danger as the Trinity continues to rise, straining levees which long ago were deemed inadequate to handle a massive flood.

I have never been in Dallas when the Trinity is running a lot of water. I've only see it when the big flood plain is dry with a little thing that looks like a ditch running through the flood plain.

That little ditch in the flood plain is currently a gigantic Lake Dallas.

Elsie Hotpepper asks a good question. As in "Does Dallas not know they are downstream??"

As the Trinity passes downtown Fort Worth the Clear Fork and West Fork join together and make a bigger river as the water continues its journey east. By the time the river gets to Dallas the East Fork and Elm Fork join Clear and West to make one unified river.

Currently one big unified river  threatening one big town's downtown with getting the New Orleans Katrina treatment.

I don't quite understand how breeched levees could threaten downtown Dallas with catastrophic flooding.

But that is what I am hearing.

Then again, like I've already suggested, when I've been in downtown Dallas I have never had any awareness of where the river was, unlike downtown Fort Worth where the river is quite noticeable, all the time, not just during those times when hundreds of dementos are having themselves a mighty fine time floating in the river, drinking beer and listening to music at an imaginary pavilion by an imaginary island at an imaginary world class water front music venue.

I sure hope the Dallas levees hold. I have seen what happens when a dike breaks during a flood. It ain't pretty.

UPDATE: From the Dallas Morning News----"All that stands between downtown Dallas and its near-total submersion are a pair of very old, deteriorating earthen levees that have been judged dangerously inadequate for a generation."

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