Thousands In Michigan Evacuate After Two Dams Are Breached (accuweather.com) 113
schwit1 writes: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an emergency declaration after the Edenville Dam and Sanford dams failed in Midland County, forcing thousands of residents to immediately evacuate their homes on Tuesday. Downtown Midland could be under 9 feet of water by Wednesday morning, Gov. Whitmer said during a Livestream on Tuesday night following the two collapses. A flash flood emergency is in effect for the areas downstream, which includes Midland City and Freeland, Michigan. "Extremely dangerous flooding is ongoing along the Tittabawassee River in Midland County due to catastrophic failures at the Edenville and Sanford dams," the NWS wrote. "A Flood Warning is in effect, and anyone near the river should seek higher ground immediately, avoid driving into flood waters, and continue to heed evacuation orders given by local authorities. Life-threatening flooding continues today."
The report notes the rising concerns among residents and environmentalists "about the potential of widespread toxic contamination after floodwaters mixed with containment ponds at the vast Dow chemical plant."
The report notes the rising concerns among residents and environmentalists "about the potential of widespread toxic contamination after floodwaters mixed with containment ponds at the vast Dow chemical plant."
Actual story says no issue with Dow ponds (Score:4, Informative)
From the very link in the summary:
Company officials later Wednesday clarified that he flood waters were mixing "with an on-site pond used for storm water and brine system / groundwater remediation,"
So no issues with chemical release.
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That's what you think, but I've read on Twitter and Facebook that all that water was full of dihydrogen monoxide!!1
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I heard that Hydric acid was destroying everything!
ACID IS MELTING MICHIGAN!!!
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The Oxidane Foundation [oxidane.org] could help. After all, it's their specialty.
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>could help ... their specialty
That's just what the government wants you to think.
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It isn't really melting, that's called LSD.
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Dow does produce acid . . .
Re:Actual story says no issue with Dow ponds (Score:4, Informative)
And if you believe any press release from DOW Midland then I have a bridge with a great view of the Tittabawassee River to sell you. My cousin lived not far from that plant in the late '70s and there were **daily** siren alerts that toxic gasses had been released, residents had gotten so used to it that they just ignored them.
No (Score:4, Interesting)
My uncle has lived in Midland since the 70's (still does, he was evacuated) and that is nonsense. I've spent loads of time in Midland, and have visited the "plant," and it's fine. This might come as a shock, but everyone who works at the Dow campus lives in Midland, and would rather not release toxic gas all over their town.
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That's good, sorta. Would be better if they didn't have daily chemical spills, but that doesn't seem to be a reason to doubt them in this case.
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Any PR issued by any chemical manufacturer when its containment systems are at risk can be summarily ignored. It doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be wrong, it's just guaranteed to have a lot more to do with what they hope is the case rather than what is the actual case.
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Even if they had tried to tell the truth, that is so foreign to the process of public relations that the press release would still end up full of lies. They don't even have the vocabulary to tell the truth.
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Um, like at almost every plant they own in the world there are daily release sirens.
It's cheaper to pay a daily fine and pay off cancer lawsuits, than it is for them to comply with the law.
I really hope this is sarcasm
Re: Actual story says no issue with Dow ponds (Score:2)
Pretty sure sounding the siren is required by law, so it sounds like they are complying with the law.
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No it isn't.
Complying with EPA law is law.
No part of that law includes sirens to jest safety or tell people they are screwed.
Perhaps you didn't take the time to look it up.
DOW simply creates the illusion of compliance.
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TDS must be catching, now there's a bunch of conservatives frothing at the mouth about Trump without any prompting.
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I don't think we should bring TDS, the ability to believe Trump, into this. He's a professional screwup, just look his bankruptcies and the number of small business owners he's screwed over.
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So, I hope it's pretty obvious to anyone by now that those licenses were the one key component holding all that water behind the dams! Damn you, Trump!
Re: WTF! (Score:2)
Why didn't Gov Whittier simply issue an executive order requiring the dams to hold back the water?
Re: WTF! (Score:2, Insightful)
The new term is "inclusion".
Because after a while we burn the meaningful value of a term to the ground so we have to invent a new word when the old word becomes a big joke and just angers people.
"Diversity" just means "racial quotas". But "inclusion" is such a joyous and positive term! Who could oppose including everyone? Didn't you hate to be excluded from games when you were in grade school? It's like that.
Or how communist became socialist. Or Leftist -> liberal
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What part of Trump's claiming he's taking hydroxychloroquine do you actually believe? This is a man with the smallest of testicles claiming to take what he knows to be a dangerous drug given what the scientists and medical professionals say. However, he thinks it's fine for you to take it because he is on record as claiming its miraculous properties. I'd call that evil.
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HCQ does have the miraculous property of costing about $20 for a 2 week supply, whereas the untested and *ACTUALLY* dangerous shit like Remdesivir cost $1,000 per IV bag..... and we can't have that shit. Saving lives has value, and someone somewhere needs to get rich. I mean, if someone were to discover that HCQ cures all dsRNA virus infections, including HIV and Herpes, well that would just flip shit on it's h
Re:WTF! (Score:5, Insightful)
"We take this action because of Boyce Hydro Power, LLC’s longstanding failure to increase the project’s spillway capacity to safely pass flood flows, as well as its failure to comply with its license, the Commission’s regulations, and a June 15, 2017, Compliance Order."
Maybe you mean "Why didn't the company that's responsible for the damned dam fix the damned dam?"
Do you read what you cite? (Score:2)
Maybe you mean "Why didn't the company that's responsible for the damned dam fix the damned dam?"
I found a USA today article with the quote you cited in it, and the article says why: They claimed they couldn't come up with $8,000,000 to do so, and they sought money from the community to do the work. Doing some back of the envelope calcs about the potential revenue from a 4.8 MW hydro plant, and knowing nothing about Boyce's other holdings, this is a credible claim on it's face. Certainly after their ability to sell electricity as a FERC participant was terminated, their financial abilities decreased fu
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It's hard spending all your taxpayer money on the following:
- Executive orders that basically state the obvious: you must report irregularities within the state to your supervisor (as if the underlings were the problem in Flint, MI)
- Executive orders on equality that are already enshrined in federal and state laws
- Give out money so people in underpopulated, underemployed and poor areas have an incentive to stay in that situation
Re: WTF! (Score:3)
The issue in Flint was Detroit heard Flint wanted to stop buying water from Detroit, so Detroit raised the price of water, which caused Flint to bring its water treatment plants online before they were ready, then to try and fix the problem with the water they added the wrong chemicals and leeched lead out of the century-old water mains poisoning countless poor children.
The issue was the people in the middle that were trying to save money on water for Flint residents.
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The issue was the people in the middle
Exactly. It took a while to figure out exactly who to blame. At first, the obvious people to blame were the mayor and the city council of Flint. But alas, none of them were white. The people making the decisions in Detroit weren't white either.
But they finally found a white guy somewhere in the chain of decisions. Bingo. It was his fault.
Re: WTF! (Score:2)
Did she ever try and do anything to address crumbling infrastructure since taking office, or was she busy with other pressing issues once she realized she could just just blame "REPUBLICANS"!
Re: WTF! (Score:3)
What steps did she try take the Republicans blocked? My money is on none...
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How the FUCK could it be her fault?
If she had been told the dams were unsafe, she could have ordered the reservoirs to be drained until repairs were funded.
But a quick Google search brought up this article [detroitnews.com] which says she was told the dams were in "fair structural condition".
So it doesn't seem reasonable to heap all the blame on her.
Rumor has it that she is at the top of the list of potential running mates for Joe Biden. That may be why she is being targeted.
woah (Score:2)
goddam
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Dammit Ted, that was the joke.
Fun Adventures (Score:5, Funny)
There, I said it.
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This is exactly the sort of quality commentary I come to the Slashdot comments for.
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I hope the government helps (Score:5, Informative)
This is a real crisis, not only are people affected by the virus and the stay at home order but now they need to evacuate too.
"Michigan sends absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!" -2h ago by @realdonaldtrump
What in the actual fucking fuck!
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No worries, Best Military (I assume that's a hotel chain) and @FEMA Teams (maybe a video conferencing app?) have this covered.
"We have sent our best Military & @FEMA Teams, already there. Governor must now “set you free” to help. Will be with you soon!"
"My team is closely monitoring the flooding in Central Michigan – Stay SAFE and listen to local officials. Our brave First Responders are once again stepping up to serve their fellow citizens, THANK YOU!"
@realDonaldTrump [twitter.com]
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Well, all those people clearly disobeyed stay at home orders and tried to vote! As if the USA was still a democratic country! What did you people expect Trump to do?
Re:I hope the government helps (Score:5, Insightful)
It still is a democracy! You can, as always, choose between the corporate friendly candidate who slashes taxes for the rich and wants to make abortion illegal, or the corporate friendly candidate who slashes taxes for the rich and wants to make guns illegal. Your vote matters!
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That is perfect phrasing, I'll probably steal it.
Re: I hope the government helps (Score:1)
Re: I hope the government helps (Score:2)
Duh.
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You are too cynical by half. Very few Democrats want all guns to be illegal or slash taxes for the rich.
But almost all Republicans really do want to make abortion illegal, shift the tax burden onto the middle and lower classes, and can be described as "corporate friendly" in the same way one might describe a prostitute as "penis friendly."
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That's not a denial. Interesting.
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People are cynical because they have to choose between a donkey and an elephant.
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Except Republicans do want to make abortion illegal, not just regulate it. Democrats want to regulate guns but not make them illegal.
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Except Republicans do want to make abortion illegal, not just regulate it.
Most Republicans (67%) think some abortions should be legal.
Most Democrats (59%) think some abortions should be illegal.
It is not as black and white (or red and blue) as you claim.
Abortion Views By Party Affliliation [gallup.com]
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It's not black and white. And yet the party platform planks of many states continue to mention overturning Roe-v-Wade or making abortion illegal. It's mostly a matter of party leadership holding a more stringent view than that average voter for the party, and the same problem exists with Democrats as well.
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IAnd yet the party platform planks of many states
Party platforms are routinely ignored by nearly everyone.
overturning Roe-v-Wade
Overturning Roe-v-Wade will just get the Federal government out of the abortion business and return it to the states.
It will become a real political issue again, decided by voters through the democratic process, rather than by a few judges.
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You do remember why Roe v Wade went to the Supreme Court, don't you? It's because religious fanatics in various states have the ability to get laws passed that restrict basic human rights. If you're comfortable letting the Fallwells, Grahams, Dobsons and the rest of the American Taliban tell you how to live then go right ahead, overturn Roe v Wade and let that camel's nose into the tent. Give us some warning though, those of us in the blue states will need a little time to prepare for the flood of refuge
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It is not as black and white (or red and blue) as you claim.
Given the breadths of those definitions, while it's not black and white it's really no more than 0x010101 vs 0xfefefe. I suspect it is in fact much less black and white than that. The thing is if you take a literal interpretation, both positions are utterly absurd, for example:
(67%) some abortions should be legal.
That includes abortions of a non-viable foetus where it's going to die either way and the mother would die without an abortion. This imp
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Will Biden cut taxes? People keep telling me he will put them up to pay for his (Green) New Deal that he promised to help recover from C19. I heard him say he would do it so... Seems like maybe you do have a meaningful choice this time.
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oh no. the what the actual fuck _really_ comes in when you realize that the Trump supporters will cheer this sentiment whole heartedly.
the cruelty is the point.
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Trump once again being the source of fake news. In the next tweet he will be complaining about fake news and how he is being treated so unfairly. He is a national disgrace.
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What? Voter fraud is good?
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What fraud? It's an absentee ballot application. Absentee ballots do not cause fraud. Trump himself has voted with an absentee ballot.
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Absentee ballots do not cause fraud.
I am permanent vote-by-mail. So is my totally apolitical spouse. I fill out her ballot along with my own. So my vote counts double. If vote-by-mail was not an option, there is no way she would bother to go to the polls.
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A loyal citizen AND dutiful husband :-)
Fyi that's a felony (Score:2)
FYI that's a felony in most states. Having her permission doesn't chsnge that. I don't know which state you're in, but here is the Florida law example.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/sta... [state.fl.us]
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Here in Washington he could fill it out, like I fill out my (also apolitical) wife's ballot. She just has to sign it freely, and as long as I didn't vote for any Republicans (with one exception) or Libertarians she's fine with it.
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So which one is the truth?
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WTF is right, since it's actually legal. Trump has a bone to pick about absentee ballots because someone told him this is how people steal elections. Never mind that Trump himself voted with an absentee ballot.
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No. Trump knows that vote-by-mail will increase voting, which will destroy the Republican party's hold on power. Why do you think that the Republicans have been working hard on voter suppression and gerrymandering?
Some quotes:
"President Donald Trump said that if the United States switched to all-mail voting, "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again.â'
"The GOP speaker of the
Evacuation protests (Score:2, Funny)
How come no one is protesting the forced evacuations? How is that different from stay at home orders? If anything, it's worse. You are being forced off your property.
Re: Evacuation protests (Score:1)
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You side stepped the important question: Why is no one out protesting being forced from their homes? Why does no one EVER protest being forced from their homes in situations like these?
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Why does no one EVER protest being forced from their homes in situations like these?
Some usually protest by refusing to leave. It happened when Mt. St. Helens erupted, it happens every time there's a hurricane. Obviously those people often times die as a result.
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It happened when Mt. St. Helens erupted
Yeah. And Harry Truman [wikipedia.org] is still bitching about it.
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That's not the same thing and you know it. Where are the ARMED protests in front of the capital?
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That's not the same thing and you know it. Where are the ARMED protests in front of the capital?
So it doesn't count unless the protestors are armed? The Branch Dividians were armed. So were was Randy Weaver and his family.
There are different kinds of protests that call for very different measures. Why would anyone who doesn't not live in an area that could potentially be wiped out by a natural disaster show up with weapons to die for one persons right to do so? As far as I know, the government typically allows those people to stay and die if they so choose.
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It's not about "counting" it's about the specific thing I brought up for discussion. One loon dying in their own home doesn't phase me. That's not even a protest. A hundred loons with guns in my state capital is a direct threat. But you know this and are just arguing because it is your side being violent assholes. When it was the Black Panthers open carrying, the NRA said "Take away their guns!" and all the mouth breathing hicks said "Damn straight!" So Ronald Reagan took the guns away, and nobody batted an
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It's not about "counting" it's about the specific thing I brought up for discussion. One loon dying in their own home doesn't phase me. That's not even a protest.
So in your mind one person can't protest?
A hundred loons with guns in my state capital is a direct threat.
It depends on who they are, doesn't it? If it's Al Qaeda or the IRA in the 1970's, etc., yes it's a threat.
But you know this and are just arguing because it is your side being violent assholes.
Actually, I didn't understand what you meant as you weren't very clear. Furthermore, I'm not sure which "side" you think I'm on. But I don't recall hearing about any violence at any of the recent armed protests either. Some I agreed with, others not so much. The recent protests in Michigan, I fail to see how showing up armed made any sense. But I don't know the
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People do protest evacuation orders. There are always people who refuse to leave. Sometimes the authorities back off and let them stay. Sometimes they are forced to leave.
A burst dam is hard to survive, but people usually survive after refusing to evacuate for a hurricane. People who refuse to evacuate for forest fires are much more likely to save their homes than those who flee. A garden hose and a shovel can be surprisingly effective.
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People in Midland are used to being forced to all kinds of absurd things by DOW and the refinery.
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Well, try not to worry your pretty little head about it. Midland is solid white bread Trumpanzee land. The Trump campaign posters are still glued up from 2016. They don't really want you worrying about them or their problems; flood, DOW, "pandemic" or otherwise.
Re: Evacuation protests (Score:2)
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From a couple hours away. Midland is a pit, and has always been a pit. The flood could wash it off the map and the would would probably be a slightly healthier place for it.
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Sounds like a nice purging flood is just what they needed then.
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So you're saying that DOW Midland should have shut down years ago? I'd agree with that, no one would ever miss Midland. (There's a DuPont factory there too, though.)
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How come no one is protesting the forced evacuations?
There aren't a bazillion memes on Facebook about it.
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There aren't a bazillion memes on Facebook about it.
Their network went down when their neighborhood flooded.
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How come no one is protesting the forced evacuations?
What makes you think that? I haven't heard any reports from this incident yet but there's always at least one asshole who refuses to leave because "it's my house" and who are you to tell them they have to leave. And then we have to send a SAR helicopter to get them off their roof.
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Some of these are the same guys who go ice fishing on Saginaw Bay after the Coast Guard has declared the ice unsafe, get rescued when the ice breaks up and floats out into Lake Huron, and then try to sue the Coast Guard for not also rescuing their snowmobiles and four-wheelers. We escapees don't call Michigan "North Redneckistan" for nothing.
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Shutdowns save lives. Freedumb kills.
https://www.propublica.org/art... [propublica.org]
Fake news! (Score:1, Troll)
Fake news, fake dam, fake water, fake flooding.
This is just another scam perpetuated by the 5G stooges trying to bring in more immigrants as part of Obamagate.
And anyone else notice that Bill Gates has 'Gate' in his last name?!
Just go to the bar and keep drinking that Clorox, it's bleach for unbleachables!
So, the US has lost the art of building dams? (Score:2)
I wonder what is next? Also, while difficult, I am sure there is a way to blame this in China, because obviously it cannot be domestic incompetence, right?
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Re: So, the US has lost the art of building dams? (Score:2)
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Hey now. We spend plenty of money propping up corporations with welfare!
Infrastructure (Score:2)
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100 hundred years old.
So 10,000 years? That's like back to the last ice age.
Longer than the universe has existed, according to republicans!
Fourteen Years of safety violations (Score:4)
Boyce Hydro Powerâ(TM)s history of violations lasted throughout the 14 years the company was authorized to run the nearly century-old Edenville dam, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which said it repeatedly raised concerns about the damâ(TM)s ability to prevent flooding during extreme conditions because of its inadequate spillway capacity.
Source: https://apnews.com/51bb1b952dc... [apnews.com]
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Michigan, aka North Redneckistan, is resoundingly Republican. Only the governor's seat changes party once in a while. Witimer's been in office less than a year and a half, her predecessor for the previous eight years, Snyder, was possibly the only governor in the state's history worse than the previous Repug, Blanchard. Witmer actually asked about the status of the dams and was told that they were probably structurally OK for now, but the guy who told her that was appointed by (IIRC) Blanchard.