The 63-year-old earthen dam is considered high-risk in part because of the consequences of failure. Federal estimates are that complete failure would threaten 431,000 people and could potentially flood downtown Dallas with 50 feet of water.
Does Lewisville Lake flood?
That makes it the wettest October on record for DFW with another week to go. As of this writing, Lewisville Lake is at 529.47 feet above sea level with the flood pool 72 percent full, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tracking website. Above 522 feet is the flood pool.
How was Lewisville made?
The lake was created by the completion of the dam in 1955 and later renamed Lewisville Lake. Lake Dallas’s dam was later breached and the two lakes combined. The dam is 32,888 feet long (over six miles) and is constructed of compacted soil.
Is Lewisville Lake artificial?
Originally engineered in 1927 as Lake Dallas, the reservoir was expanded in the 1940s and 1950s and renamed Lewisville Lake. It was built for flood control purposes and to serve as a water source for Dallas and its suburbs, but residents also use it for recreational purposes.
Is Lake Lewisville man made?
Grapevine Lake, Lavon Lake, Benbrook Lake, Ray Roberts Lake and Lewisville Lake were all constructed by damming certain tributaries of the Trinity River, including Denton Creek, Buck Creek and Mustang Creek.
What would happen if the Lewisville Dam collapsed?
Only 34 miles upstream from Dallas, the Lewisville Dam holds back 2 million acre-feet, or 2.5 billion tons, of water when the lake is full. If the dam failed, the magnitude of all that water unleashed from Lake Lewisville down the Trinity River would dwarf the worst dam disaster in American history.
How many people died in the Lewisville flood?
The flood killed 2,209 people and devastated the city. The Lewisville Dam holds back 125 times as much water as the South Fork Dam. Only 34 miles upstream from Dallas, the 6.2-mile-long Lewisville Dam holds back 2.5 billion tons of water when the lake is full.
How many people would be affected by a dam breach?
A breach could put 431,000 people in harm’s way. T he problem — one of many — first appeared as last May’s record rainstorms quickly filled the region’s reservoirs. An instrument at the Lewisville Lake Dam showed pressure building under the downstream side.
Is Fort Worth dam ‘critically near failure’?
The dam is so unstable now that the Fort Worth District is considering asking Corps headquarters to upgrade its risk classification to the highest: “critically near failure” — that is, “almost certain to fail under normal operations … within a few years without intervention,” according to a Corps document.
