Melissa writes:

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On 6 Nov 2003 06:53:08 -0800, roger beniot wrote:

I've also paddled up Diablo lake to the base of the dam...

Hi Roger,

While I have no problem paddling in storm-tossed seas, I've always
felt a little uncomfortable paddling on dam-affected bodies of
water...above or below the dam! (though I've done it a few times
nonetheless).

Some of us rarely paddle anywhere else ;-)

My particular little phobia may be grounded in an
improbable longshot, but the idea of a dam bursting due to a
catastrophic earthquake or some such just gives me the willies.

Well, it's really unlikely that a dam would _burst_, and that you'd
have no warning whatsoever; however, there are some pretty big dams
that have been built in some seismically unstable areas. The biggun
on the Yangtze (Three Gorges) comes to mind...and if you look at a
map of the Sun Kosi in eastern Nepal, you'll see a dam-created lake
that isn't there. Seems they took a second look after the maps had
already been altered but before the dam was built and decided, "Uh
uh, bad idea," because of seismic issues.

I think, though, that it's a good idea to understand something about
a dam before you paddle above or below it. Like..does it release?
When, how, where, how quickly does the water rise? Where's the
intake? Stuff like that.

They did a FEMA thang in my area recently, a catastrophic failure
scenario (we've got lotsa dams and reservoirs on the river). The
worst case scenario they came up with had the water rising 100 feet
in a number of hours. Thing is, though, that with a modern dam, you
aren't gonna get the Johnstown Flood wall of water -- you'll get a
fast rise, and the big issue is evacuation.

And
besides, paddling in a "dam created lake" makes me feel like I'm in
some sort of bathtub...albeit a big one.

Shrug. An awful lot of North American lakes are dam created,
whether people know it or not.

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Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.