I’ve been away for a couple of days. Driving down Joe Bald Road, early this evening, I noticed a lot of small twigs and leaves had blown down. A little further on, there were pockets of hail, ankle deep, on the side of the road. I just missed that storm.

The big topic across the Ozarks is the floods. That’s what people are talking about.

This is from KY3, yesterday.

Jim Sandberg, Table Rock Lake’s operation project manager, says it hopes by June 1 that it can have Table Rock Lake a manageable level. On Tuesday, the lake had only two-tenths of an inch of storage capacity remaining.

table-rock-lake-042208.jpg

Same guy, Jim Sandberg, from a Q and A piece in the News Leader this morning.

Q: What is the likelihood of future releases at Table Rock Dam?

Sandberg: “We are at a higher potential for higher releases at Table Rock simply because we don’t have the storage capacity we had. We actually went from 926.9 to 933, which is a little over 2 feet above our flood pool. We don’t have that luxury today. We’re near the top of our flood storage capacity. Matter of fact, we’ve only got enough capacity to handle two-tenths of an inch of runoff. Once we have that…we get into flood pool and we have to start making some changes. Whether we can make those releases through hydropower turbine releases or a combination of hydropower and spillway gates will be determined by the amount of rain and how long the duration and the amount of rain that’s actually on the ground.”

Q: Why hasn’t the corps been gradually releasing water through spring, knowing rains were coming?

Sandberg, in an earlier statement: “Under normal circumstances, each lake would collect rainfall and runoff. Then, dam operators would release that water gradually over time as channel capacity downstream became available, allowing more flood storage to build in the lakes. However, persistent flooding along the lower White River system has prevented those gradual releases over time, as Corps Reservoir Control continues to manage the water to reduce flood crests downstream. Making any ‘pre-releases’ to increase reservoir storage capacity in this situation, while potentially beneficial to some, would only worsen the flooding of others downstream.”

I’m glad I don’t have Mr. Sandberg’s trouble. It has been raining buckets, constantly, for the last three hours. The ground was already saturated. The gravel road leading into the campground was like a briskly flowing mountain stream.

So, that 2/10ths of an inch capacity they had to play with is a memory.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Related posts

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

"And Then, It Started To Rain" by Pribek was published on April 23rd, 2008 and is listed in Weather.

Follow comments via the RSS Feed | Leave a comment

Comments on "And Then, It Started To Rain": 4 Comments

  1. J wrote,

    Playlist for the Table Rock Lake Community due to inclement weather:

    Wade in the Water (Blind Boys of Alabama)
    Bridge over Troubled Water (Simon/Garfunkle)
    Cool, Cool Water (Sons of Pioneers)
    I asked for Water (She gave me gasoline) Howlin’ Wolf
    Water Music (Suite #1 by G.F. Handel)
    Hands Across the Water (Paul McCartney)
    Water-Melon in Easter Hay (F. Zappa)
    Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
    Muddy Water (Bessie Smith)
    No Rain - (Blind Melon)
    Singin’ in the Rain (Film Soundtrack)
    Raindrops keep fallin’ on my Head (B. Bacharach).
    Blue Eyes Cryin’ (in the rain) (H. Williams).
    Here comes that Rainy Day (E. Fitzgerald)
    Here comes the Rain again (Eurhythmics)
    Laughter in the Rain (can’t remember)
    Purple Rain (Prince)
    Somewhere over the Rainbow (Garland)
    Rainbow Connection (Kermit the Frog).
    Rainy Night (in Georgia) (can’t remember)
    Stormy Weather (E. Fitzgerald)

    Any others?

    J’s last blog post..Transom Tools Mic Shootout

  2. Pribek wrote,

    Holy Levee Breaking, Batman!
    This is very impressive, J. Did you just pull this list out of the hip pocket or, did you think about it awhile? Either way, it’s strong as bear’s breath.

    Rainy Night (in Georgia)-Brook Benton?

    Rainy Day, Dream Away (Jimi)
    Blame It On The Rain (Milli Vanilli)
    Have You Ever Seen The Rain (CCR)
    Rainin’ In My Heart (Fats Domino?)
    Rainy Days And Mondays (?)

  3. J wrote,

    And the house band will be Wet Willie!!

    Can’t think of any bands with water-related names…

    Rainy Day=Brook Benton! I would have never remembered that! Barbi Benton, perhaps…

    Rainy days and Mondays = Mamas and Papas? Not sure about that.

    We forgot “Smoke on the Water”, “November Rain” by G-n-R and “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” by any random 4 year-old.

    J’s last blog post..Handy Tip - Protools Archiving

  4. Pribek wrote,

    I woke up when you said Barbi Benton.
    Wet Willie-great band
    Toad The Wet Sprocket

    Driftin’ Blues (Charles Brown)
    Let It Rain (EC)
    The Sky Is Cryin’ (I always liked the haunting and wistful Elmore James version than the bluesoff approach that I hear 47% of all bar bands doing in the wake of SRV)

Leave Your Comment

Subscribe without commenting

Pribek is powered by WordPress

Wearing the Resolution Green Skin for Shifter by Buzzdroid