Technology 'Extreme' flooding at Mojave Dam could put hundreds of thousands at risk: Officials

An "extreme" flooding event at the Mojave River Dam could put hundreds of thousands of Southern California residents nearby at risk, according to officials.

© U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District The Mojave River Dam is pictured in this undated photo.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that it has changed the risk characterization of the dam, located in San Bernardino County, from low to high urgency of action after assessing that water during an extreme flood event could exceed the design capacity of the dam and overtop it.

The dam failure that could possibly result would flood the communities adjacent to the Mojave River, such as Hesperia, Apple Valley, Victorville and Barstow, according to the news release.

Niger floods force 23,000 from their homes

Floods in southeast Niger have forced 23,000 people to flee their homes since early October, officials said Saturday, threatening a new humanitarian crisis in a region already wracked by Boko Haram Islamist violence. Heavy rains have caused the Komadougou Yobe river that flows through the semi-desert Diffa region into Lake Chad to burst its banks, inundating villages, flooding fields and damaging crops. Two villages near the city of Diffa were "completely submerged" and 2,500 households have been forced to move, according to national radio the Voice of the Sahel.Some 400 families were sheltering in a gym in the city, it added.

A California dam could fail during an extreme storm and send water flooding into Mojave Desert communities that are home to about 300,000 people, authorities said Friday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it has changed its risk characterization of the Mojave River Dam from low

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California dam could fail during an extreme storm and send water flooding into Mojave Desert communities that are home to about 300,000 people, authorities said Friday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it has changed its risk characterization of the Mojave

© U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District The Mojave River Dam is pictured in this undated photo.

The dam, located on the northern side of the San Bernardino Mountains downstream of the confluence of the West Fork Mojave River and Deep Creek, was built in 1971 and designed and constructed with the "standards of the day," according to the Army. It reduces risk for more than 16,000 people and $1.5 billion in property and "continues to operate as designed."

It has never experienced a spillway flow or flood event that could load it "significantly," and a weather event powerful enough to do so is "unlikely."

However, officials want to be prepared in the event that it does, according to the Army.

California's Mojave River Dam could fail in an extreme storm, put 300,000 at flood risk, officials say

Trouble is brewing upstream.

California's Mojave River Dam Could Fail in Extreme Flooding , Corps of Engineers Says. SCE and other utilities, including Pacific Gas and Electric, the state's largest electricity provider, shut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers ahead of the wildfire threat.

A California dam could fail during an extreme storm and send water flooding into Mojave Desert communities that are home to about 300,000 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it has changed its risk characterization of the Mojave River Dam from low to high urgency of action.

"This is a storm that is unlikely to occur, but it is nonetheless a real possibility and one we must be prepared for," Col. Aaron Barta, commander of the Corps’ Los Angeles District, said in a statement.

© U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District The Mojave River Dam is pictured in this undated photo.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District owns and operates 17 dams across California, Arizona and Nevada, which collectively reduce flooding for about 7 million people and $200 billion in property, according to the release. The agency is currently evaluating interim risk-reduction measures associated with potential overtopping at the Mojave River Dam.

The agency recommends that residents prepare an emergency kit, register their mobile phones with San Bernardino County's telephone emergency notification system for alerts and create an evacuation plan in case of a flood event.

In 2017, nearly 200,000 people in Southern California were evacuated after the spillways at the Oroville Dam in Butte County were damaged.

Dike gives way, thousands of people evacuated near Montreal

© Sebastien St-Jean, AFP For several weeks now, Canada has been hit by floods, like here in Rigaud, near Montreal, on April 22.

More than 5,000 people in a city west of Montreal were evacuated on an emergency night Saturday to Sunday after a dike broke.

A vegetal dyke protecting the city of Saint-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, on the shores of Lac des Deux-Montagnes, a few dozen kilometers from Montreal at Canada , gave way on the evening of Saturday, April 27th. This rupture caused a surge of water, sometimes 1.5 meters, in several neighborhoods, without casualties, according to Public Security Quebec . More than 5,000 people from one commune had to be evacuated urgently

"We did not have time to do anything, the water rose as we talked, I just had time to take my medication, "said a resident on the CBC.

Several hundred police, military and firefighters have evacuated nearly 2,600 homes since Saturday night, and other evacuations were still ongoing Sunday morning, said a spokesman for the Sûreté du Québec.

"No one is missing or missing"

"It's going very well, no one was happily injured, no one is missing or missing," Sgt. Daniel Thibodeau said Sunday.

Following these evacuations, the Québec authorities have given a new assessment of these floods: nearly 8,000 people have already been evacuated in Quebec for two weeks, and nearly 6,000 homes have been flooded.

During the catastrophic floods spring 2017, the worst in half a century, 4,000 people had been evacuated and 5,400 homes flooded in Quebec according to the figures of the civil security.

More than 1,000 military personnel have been deployed in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick to assist evacuations and temporary dike construction.

Faced with the rising waters of Ontario to New Brunswick, passing through Quebec, which is expected to culminate in the coming days, the federal capital Ottawa and the largest city in Quebec, Montreal, have declared the state of emergency at the end of the week.

In western Quebec, the authorities were still watching the small dam at Bell Falls, submerged by a tributary of the Ottawa River and threatening to give way at any moment.

As a precaution, several hundred people living downstream of the dam, near Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, 80 km northwest of Montreal, were evacuated.

WITH AFP

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