¿Major Santiago Problem?

[laurapasinifan]

how do you have a "controlled" release that results in a 20 foot water rise on a river!!!!

insane for sure.

the amount of rise in the water mark is what you would expect of the dam burst..it seems.....

for water to go over the bridge railing in that picture and have neough force at that level to rip the metal railing out.....means it was probaly 5 foot over that as well.....that is a huge amount of water.....

they must have just opened the pipe all the way.......

too bad

bob

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by SantiagoDR

Still no electric in our area, which translates to no water either for us.

And although the President said 48 hours Edenorte are saying it could be 3-4 days:
http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo_...E56&Seccion=70

22 fatalities now - 17 in Santiago.
http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo_...234&Seccion=63

And in answer to how high the water got (in the dam) 10 centimetres ABOVE maximum - I posted it here, post 174:
Subtropical Storm OLGA was Late Season Tropical Depression 94

[Hipocrito Mejia]

I want to make a few points, as I seem to have a different opinion on this than a lot of people.

First, I don't take any of these post personally. (BushBaby) We're just having a discussion and sharing our opinions, so no offense taken on my part. I hope that my opinions don't offend anyone.

Anyway, I heard/saw reports about this storm here in the US and the possible flooding problems on Sunday. So if I heard it here on Sunday, it's reasonable to think that someone in DR would/should have heard about it by Monday morning.

INDRHI started releasing water from the dam during the day on Monday, in anticipation of rising water levels. They didn't just start after/during the storm.

Now, as I wrote before, I'm very familiar with this area and the response from residents to similar circumstances in the past, going back to the mid 70s. Over and over, people in that area have ignored warnings and stayed put well beyond the time that any prudent, reasonable person would. Unfortunately, a lot of lives have been lost unnecessarily.

Finally, I am not absolving government officials of all fault in this tragedy. They certainly could have done a better job preparing for and responding to this storm. They have also ignored conditions and issues such as deforestation, pollution of the rivers, removal of river bed materials, etc., that have contributed to worsening the effect of these storms on the country and its people. A real effort must be made on their part to address these problems and to educate the general population, otherwise, it won't be long before we see something similar happen again.

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by Hipocrito Mejia

INDRHI started releasing water from the dam during the day on Monday, in anticipation of rising water levels. They didn't just start after/during the storm.

They certainly say they did start releasing on Monday. But have you been keeping your eye on the INDRHI website? This appeared after the complaints that they should have released earlier than they did.

The preceding 'reason' (?excuse) was the unprecedented amount of rainfall - see their previous item - greater than ever before 'Durante George a la presa nunca le entraron más de 1500 metros cúbicos por segundo. En Noel no le entró más de 800 metros cúbicos por segundo. Ahora le entró 5 mil 300 metros cúbicos por segundo'
Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos -INDRHI-

After that one got questioned in the papers they went to 'we started releasing Monday'. You're Dominican, Hipocrito Mejia? So you know how the excuse machine works?

But to get to a level of 10 centimetres ABOVE maximum at 3am Wednesday, there was either faulty or negligent dam management. Clearly when that happened someone said 'oh sh*t' & let the lot out. The other thing they have to do, they tell us, 'Pero eso tiene un manual de procedimiento que hay que seguir”, añadió el director del INDRHI'. So they went by the book (if you can't blame it on anyone else, blame it on the operations manual!). But does 'the book' allow for prediction of catastrophic events or does it only say 'when the water gets to this level, you do such and such'.

Now there has been a report from an expert saying release should have started Sunday. So.............wait for a convincing reason as to why that couldn't happen(appearing on INDRHI website tomorrow?)

And see this? 'La cantidad de agua que ha caído en la cuenca del río Yaque del Norte ha sido tan grande que aunque la presa de Tavera hubiese estado vacía se habría llenado en pocas horas.'

They kept it empty? And it filled in a few hours? And the capacity is 170 million cubic metres?

And I think Dag has just answered your other points on the other thread post 178
Subtropical Storm OLGA was Late Season Tropical Depression 94

[J D Sauser]

The news I hear from various sources seem to compound to the following succession of events:

• On Sunday evening the President was briefed about the approaching strom which would bring between 10 to 15 cm of rain (4 to 6").
• He is said to have staid over at the palace that night and have, among other things, advised the dams to be drained as necessary according to the expected amount of rain BEFORE the storm hit.
• During the the storm it was apparently made public that they would drain 300 cubic meters of water per second into the river (a 4x8m pool with a deep end has about 60 cubic meter of water). Drained into a river this size, this is not yet very much.
• However, they later apparently increased that amount to 5000 cubic meters per second, which in turn is a considerable amount.

... J-D.

[J D Sauser]

• And reportedly, the total rain fall was 14cm, which would be well within the predicted (?).

... J-D.