Miracles and Madness at Prado

Water overflows a cofferdam earlier this month

Hundreds of deaths may have miraculously been avoided downstream from the Prado Dam when the temporary cofferdam shown above managed to not break up, despite predictions it would fail. After all, 2.5 feet of water were cresting over it. The overflow is clearly evident on the right side of the photo.

I obtained this previously unpublished photo from a source who got it from an unnamed source. The story behind the photo is one of miracles, incompetence, irresponsibility and gross CYA behavior.

First, it's a picture of catastrophe avoided. Temporary cofferdams like this are not meant to be topped. Yet this one did not crumble despite the great pressure behind it and the high potential for degredation caused by the water running over it. Just downstream are two neighborhoods that would have looked worse than Phuqet if it had failed.

It's also a picture about money. Orange County has been raiding its flood control budget for years to pay off its bankruptcy debt, so a decision was made to make the cofferdam -- which is part of a construction project to increase the capacity of Prado Dam -- lower than the spillway, which is just to the right what's shown in this photo.

Stupid. If the cofferdam had been a few feet higher, water would have run down the spillway like it's supposed to, and this would be a non-story. As it is, huge expenditures will be required to restore the construction site and finish the job.

It's also a story about shirked responsibility. My sources tell me that the construction contractor frantically tried for hours to get someone at the US Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for managing the dam, to rush to Corona to open the floodgates and take the pressure off the dam.

No one seems to know why, but the Corps refused for some time to send anyone, leading to the overflow, which should have led to a catastrophic failure.

Now, according to an LA Times report on a meeting of officials and residents of neighborhoods below the dam, the Corps is shirking its responsibility.

Officials sounded frustrated that they couldn't get a clear answer on whether to evacuate from the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates and is upgrading the dam. They said the Corps told them it was a local decision.

"Then one engineer stated if his mom lived there, he would evacuate her," Fire Chief Mike Warren said. "He also said, 'It's going to fail; it could be a matter of hours or days, but hopefully our [repairs] get done before it fails.' " Warren said those comments were one of the factors that led to the evacuation.

A Corps representative was not present, which angered many at the meeting.