Bad blood between Toledo bend and lower sabine

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

We have had a couple extreme catastrophic weather events in the last few years. If Toledo Bend had never been made into a reservoir and was still just the Sabine River, those people below (and many many more) still would have flooded. They blame the SRA, but the SRA has guidelines which it operates the control structure. When the lake is at X level, they will not open the gates. They can not open the gates in anticipation of rain. That would lower the level below what they are allowed to open the gates at. It sucks for the people below the dam, but they would have flooded either way

Under some situations..... IMO..... this guideline does cause the flooding to be worse down stream of the dam.


Example: If the lake is 1 foot below full pool level [172'] and it is raining very hard up just north of the lake.... to me, it would make since to not wait a day or so for the lake water to "hit" the magic level before the opening gates. If the SRA would open a few gates [or run the generators] before the lake rises to above pool level, down stream flood could be a reduced a little because fewer total gates would have to be opened.


The SAR guidelines need to be changed...... IMO to hopefully reduce some of the downstream flooding.