Howard Hansen Dam?

[PlaneGuy]

Have you all been following this crazy talk? Seems like Y2K and bird-flu discussion all over again. Attention folks: The Sky IS NOT falling.

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[WSB]

And swine flu and West Nile and SARS … OTOH, floods can be sudden and deadly. This whole thing doesn’t affect our area in the slightest, but there’s not much harm in the people there being prepared, though I’d agree the panic level could be tamped down a bit.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/safety/FloodPlan.aspx

Events listed on the lower right of that page include a public meeting tomorrow in Kent, followed by several more in Tukwila, Kent and Auburn.

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[flowerpetal]

The sky is not falling. Probably what is falling is the market share that the three major networks locally hold.

Its not an non-event; but it is much less significant than has been hyped.

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[karen]

I respectfully disagree that this is not a significant event and that it does not affect our area. If you look at possible flood maps you can see that a lot of Auburn, Kent, Renton, and Tukwila may be under water. That could include all of the Southcenter area, 167 both directions, and possible cause overflow into the Duwamish valley – South Seattle and Georgetown. Additionally, many food banks are very concerned about this because the main warehouse for NW Harvest is in the proposed flood area.

The flu may not be as deadly as everyone feared but I can tell you that in the three weeks since school has started my class has had as many as one third of the children out at a time. Additionally, if 30-50% of our population becomes ill, even just for a few days, it could significantly impact all of us. Look around while you are out, now remove half the clerks, stockers, drivers, janitors, teachers, bus drivers, repair persons, etc.

True, the sky is not falling, but there is a serious threat. While it is silly to panic over nothing, I feel that it is equally silly to not be prepared for what could become a problem.

Remember that before last year’s big snow storm, the weather experts were predicting a large snow event and many people were still caught unprepared.

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[flowerpetal]

We had engineers from the Howard Hanson Dam over for dinner earlier this week; not because they were HHD engineers; but because they are friends. I trust my friends.

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[JoB]

i trust the engineers.. if they say there is a problem.. there is a problem..

remember that freeway bridge in Minneapolis that took a nose dive into the river? I lived there then. The engineers said there was a problem and the hiway department chose to downplay it and postpone repairs.

THAT was not a good decision.

Being prepared is a much better idea than finding yourself in the river.

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[lazybeard]

While the sky is not falling, it presents an issue for me at least.

I work in Kent, and our operations span up to Everett and that would be directly affected. We’ve been having discussions about relocating our operations to Bellevue because of this issue.

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[JayDee]

I ride the Green River Trail bike trail regularly and while recent levee repairs have helped (like near the Riverbend golf course) the rest of the levees are in sad shape. I am an earth scientist and recognize signs of pending “landslide-like” failure in the pattern of crack across the bike path, and this is under normal (i.e. with a dam) conditions.

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That said, the Howard Hansen Dam was built in a bad spot–tying the dam abutment into a landslide (maybe it wasn’t recognized at the time…) will always make this a sketchy dam even with repairs. While I think converting the best farmland in the area into warehouses and box stores verges on the criminal, I’d hate to see the economic chaos that would result from a major flood.

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And I had swine flu and was out of work sick at home for a week because of possible implications for my younger co-workers. So not all hype is overblown. I am worried about the dam because all that development was predicated on it’s functionality. I say we prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.

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