Officials fear Lynchburg dam will collapse as heavy rain forces evacuations in Virginia city

Heavy rains sent water spilling over a dam in Lynchburg, Virginia, spurring fears that it could collapse and prompting some home evacuations in the city of roughly 80,000 people.

In a dire warning Thursday night, the National Weather Service reported the College Lake Dam could fail, and if it does, "the water depth at Lynchburg could exceed 17 feet in 7 minutes."

Officials fear Lynchburg dam will collapse as heavy rain forces evacuations in Virginia city

Well, the situation is looking pretty dire for Lynchburg. The lake is of considerable size and runoff from the creeks are getting it at critical capacity.

Oddly enough, this area hasn't gotten biblical rain for southwest Virginia considering it's summer. I'm curious as to how this hasn't happened before or if the dam is just aging.

ETA: here is a video of some of the flooding. It isn't to abnormal for this to happen once a year in areas in this region.

The whole east coast has gotten tons of twain in the past few weeks ... Tropical wave that funneled up the east coast .

a reply to: Meldionne1

Global raining?

What I don't get is why people live in the shadow of a dam, or like the same way people build their houses on the beach or banks of a river, all of us aghast when the disaster finally hits. Then what do we do? Rebuild on the beach or the river bank.

Naw, the shovel ready project took care of this, right?

We've had lots of rain and the soil is saturated which is unusual for August. Typical VA weather here is dry summers and wet spring and fall. We had several small dams break around here and my house got wet in places it had never done before. Of course 5" of rain in 1 hour might have something to do with that.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

I travel the whole region for work and have lived in parts of Virginia. Roanoke is notorious for parts flooding each year. Memorial day weekend they got 8 inches in an hour. Downtown Roanoke has been under a few feet on multiple occasions.

Roanoke is about an hour away. Each area has different whether though. Runoff from the mountains can make a few inches hell for valleys though.

originally posted by: Scrutinizing
What I don't get is why people live in the shadow of a damn, or like the same way people build their houses on the beach or banks of a river, all of us aghast when the disaster finally hits. Then what do we do? Rebuild on the beach or the river bank.

Thing is we build in places that are safe but development within the watershed area affects how much water gets thrown in to a creek and how fast it can drain away. When I lived at my last house we got a 500 year flood event according to the FEMA maps. What they didn't take in to account was about 50 acres of bare soil where they were building a shopping plaza. The water ran off that, accumulated at a railroad berm 20' tall and busted it completely out - unleashing a torrent of water. Only our basement got wet but 2 houses down it came up to their 2nd story.

Hard surfaces and development change how the water flows so people really need to look at topo maps when buying a house and survey the watershed to see what could happen. That's why "safe" houses from flooding often aren't.

Turn around, don't drown!

At least that's the phrase we use in Austin because flash flooding happens every year, and every year people attempt to get to their destination by driving through water they don't realize will wash their vehicle away.

Plus there are so many transplants, the newbs don't know any better.

Good luck Lynchburg!

How do we know this is true -- it's the US National Weather Service after all - and the government only lies.....

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Seriously this is horrific - no climate change - no infrastructure (dams) spending. It's horrific.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals

Thing is we build in places that are safe but development within the watershed area affects how much water gets thrown in to a creek and how fast it can drain away. When I lived at my last house we got a 500 year flood event according to the FEMA maps. What they didn't take in to account was about 50 acres of bare soil where they were building a shopping plaza. The water ran off that, accumulated at a railroad berm 20' tall and busted it completely out - unleashing a torrent of water. Only our basement got wet but 2 houses down it came up to their 2nd story.

Hard surfaces and development change how the water flows so people really need to look at topo maps when buying a house and survey the watershed to see what could happen. That's why "safe" houses from flooding often aren't.

Good point. It would be impossible for a home buyer to see that coming on. I once had a house in a state where there was little hurricane potential, and on high ground. After a hurricane in another state, the next year my insurance bill was 35% higher. Part of buying a home was knowing the wind and water situation, to me. Nor would I expect anybody else to pay for my view of the water or beach, and these people are rebuilding on the same spots. The company told me they have to recoup hurricane payouts. I cancelled that insurance pronto, saved a couple hundred dollars in the process with another insurer, that wasn't co-op punitive. But I don't believe a person who makes a point to be located disaster preventative, as much as possible, should have to pay for these idiots who simply have to be on the water.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Apparently this is their first scare since the dam was built in the thirties.

Lynchburg relatively flat, though their creeks and rivers may get some of the mountain runoff from the blue ridge mountains. I'll have to ask some of my buddies that know more about Lynchburg. Maybe Roanoke just has a better infrastructure for dealing with the water.

a reply to: Scrutinizing

I don't believe a person who makes a point to be located disaster preventative, as much as possible, should have to pay for these idiots who simply have to be on the water.

Exactly... How much are we going to have to pay for these home in cali that have burnt up? Here in Michigan we have not had any natural disaster in my life time. Not on the scale of the rest of the country at least. Had a local tornado 25 years ago or so.
I mean, the roads in Michigan suck. probably worst in the nation. We have so many freeze thaw cycles every year that it messes up our roads.

If we got half of the money these disaster prone states get every year to fix our roads, we would be driving on gold streets with diamond stripes

a reply to: Scrutinizing

I agree, the FEMA flood insurance was started to replace high-priced vacation homes - ask John Stossel. 50 years ago it was the poor people who lived on the ocean or by the rivers but FEMA is subsidizing extravagant building so the well off can "enjoy the views without undue financial worries". Most of the money spent is for replacing vacation homes of high society.

originally posted by: Scrutinizing
What I don't get is why people live in the shadow of a dam, or like the same way people build their houses on the beach or banks of a river, all of us aghast when the disaster finally hits. Then what do we do? Rebuild on the beach or the river bank.

I live at the beach, if disaster hits then meh, insurance will cover it first time around, and I'll reconsider then what to do. There are no records of tsunami's in my area, and if sea-levels rise in future I'll just have to look at it as it happens.
Some new houses have been built on 'the plains' as it is known at a local river. I don't blame them, fantastic location, but they do flood occassionally so the homes have been built with car garages on ground floor level to take the hit instead of living quarters.
I will laugh if the residents get flooded next time the river breaches it's banks - They made the choice as I do where I live.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy

originally posted by: Scrutinizing
What I don't get is why people live in the shadow of a dam, or like the same way people build their houses on the beach or banks of a river, all of us aghast when the disaster finally hits. Then what do we do? Rebuild on the beach or the river bank.

I live at the beach, if disaster hits then meh, insurance will cover it first time around, and I'll reconsider then what to do. There are no records of tsunami's in my area, and if sea-levels rise in future I'll just have to look at it as it happens.
Some new houses have been built on 'the plains' as it is known at a local river. I don't blame them, fantastic location, but they do flood occassionally so the homes have been built with car garages on ground floor level to take the hit instead of living quarters.
I will laugh if the residents get flooded next time the river breaches it's banks - They made the choice as I do where I live.

I know I've got nothing against people who want to live in a flood plain, on a beach (a great barrier to not getting devastated by a hurricane or tsunami is to be far enough inland), live on a fault line, whatever, just believe those people should pay the freight for being higher risk, to get that view or whatever. There are a lot of attractive things that aren't wise, and people that choose what's wise, without the nice view, shouldn't be penalized, for those who are careless, even insist on being careless, like God ordained we all pay, when the other shoe drops with people who demand what's convenient or scenic, decide it's okay to be an accident waiting to happen, for others to make whole.

a reply to: Scrutinizing
I get you to an extent if you are talking about government aid in natural disaster situations, where people chose to live somewhere with increased risks.
But if you are talking about insurance and shared costs by all insurered people, then I disagree.
You choose to buy buildings insurance, and you are free to use a company which charges higher fees in risk areas or refuse to insure risky buildings in the first place. It is business and always a choice, even people who are forced to take out buildings insurance as a condition of their mortgage...they chose to take out that mortgage.