Seepage Prompts Corps to Evacuate People Downstream of California Dam
More than 800 residents and 120 campers were allowed to return to their homes Jan. 14 after being evacuated the previous day from a community near the city of Corona in Riverside County, Calif., when an Army Corps of Engineers project manager noticed seepage on the downstream face of a rain-soaked Prado Dam. It was a precautionary action, says Dr. Fred-Otto Egeler, director of corporate communications for the Los Angeles District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In addition to doubling the release of water from 5,000 cfs to 10,000 cfs, the Corps had the contractor working on improvements to the dams intake system, Riverside-based Yeager Skanska, Inc. cover the area with geotextile netting material and dirt.