Emergency!!!!

[Chuck Spyropulos]

The dam, that holds back millions of gallons of drinking water, at the end of my street is in danger of giving way so the FEMA and MEMA have opened up spillways. Some people are saying that ther could be 6 feet minimum of water coming down my street. Others say no. Others say madatory evacuations may be ordered tonight. I can't get any definite answers so any info anyone has would be appreciated.

Please, if anyone has any info whatsoever, post it here. I am beginning to take pictures of all my stuff on the first floor including my tanks, fishroom equipment, etc.

I will probably disconnect my sump if we evacuate since the flood water would pollute my system. It would give the animals at least a few hours before we return, if we return soon enough to save them.

[Chuck Spyropulos]

I walked up to the dam that is 40 feet high according to the engineers that were working there. Usually the water is 25 feet below cresting. Now it is 3 feet from cresting and spilling out through the overflow channel. They are now worried that the channel will erode from the high flow out of the overflow and cause more erosion and severe flooding. They trucked in several huge boulders to slow the flow should erosion occur.

The other danger is that the dam could collapse. Although, I think and hope, this is at best a remote possibility, it could happen. The town passed out flyers telling us that the city of Saugus and Lynn has engineers watching the situation and they will be there all night and that evacuation to Peabody High School is voluntary but could become mandatory if the overflow erodes to the point that the flow is uncontrollable.

This really sucks....

[dobejazz]

Wow that really sucks I hope everything works out ok for you

[abigtroutt]

Chuck grab the family and all the pets and come to Florida. There is no rain here. That sucks what your going through!!! I hope the dam does not break and you and the family are going to be ok! I can understand what your going through because of the hurricanes here.

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Thanks guys...it's just a wait and see game here. A neighor who is closer to the dam, was flooded. I brought him my sump pump since my house is dry at the moment. I hope I don't regret giving the pump away, but he needs it much more than I do right now.

[Loverotties]

I hope it resides soon!

[ceige]

How did you make out Chuck? This is my mother in laws house yesterday. We tried to keep her dry but we could not do it...

Crazy times....

[Chuck Spyropulos]

I feel exceptionally lucky . We got no water at all, the dam held out! The overflow canal eroded a little but not enough to cause an uncontrollable flood. It was really closer than I thought. When I walked up to the overflow yesterday, the resevoir was 3 feet from cresting over the dam. But Sunday it was within 1 foot of cresting!


And we slept through the whole thing........

Today, the water level was 7 inches lower than yesterday, according to the guys working at the site. I think we are past any dangerous, castastophic dam/overflow events...thank God!

Ceige...sorry to hear about your mother in law's house.