Potential dam failure near Conroe

The persistent rainfall poses a serious threat to the dam at the Lewis Creek Reservoir, near Willis, Texas, USA.

The persistent rainfall poses a serious threat to the dam at the Lewis Creek Reservoir, near Willis, Texas, USA. The local authorities are informed about the potential dam failure by Entergy Texas Inc., which is an integrated energy company and delivers electricity to more than 426,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation.

Entergy is working around the clock and doing its utmost for repairing the dam and trying to ensure the safety of the area. The bad news is that efforts are being sabotaged by the continuing rainfall in the surrounding area which has caused extensive saturation of the soils that make up the reservoir dam.

At the time of writing, water release into Lake Conroe is in progress so that the water level of the reservoir to be diminished and the dam to be relieved from the stress exerted on it. Miranda Hahs, MCOEM Homeland Security Planner says "We encourage all citizens of Montgomery County to sign up for Code Red Emergency Alerts in order to receive all county emergency notification."

There are steps that are taken for preventing further dam deterioration, including the installation of berms for minimizing further slide movement, the installation of more than eight acres of protective covering to protect areas of concern from additional rainfall. Also, geotechnical engineers are at the site and monitor constantly the soil.

 Residents can sign up for Code Red by visiting this link: mctxoem.org