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Officials were worried that the dam on a tiny lake in Ellis County was about to fail. Now they believe it will hold for another day.
Residents in Midlothian and Grand Prairie were warned early Wednesday morning that a breech in the Padera Lake, or Texas Lake, dam was imminent.
But city engineers who re-evaluated it in the daylight determined it was more stable than it had been. The volume of water in the lake has significantly decreased.
“The previous reports of an imminent breech have now been… we’re standing down basically,” said Captain John Spann with the Midlothian Police Department.
If the dam breaks, a flood wave could wash over Highway 287. The water would eventually flow into area creeks and Joe Pool Lake.
The highway was shut down Wednesday morning as a precaution. West and northbound traffic was diverted to Highway 67 and east and southbound traffic was detoured to Old Fort Worth Road.
There are about 25 homes downstream. Those people were asked to evacuate. Livestock owners were also asked to move their animals to higher ground.
“We’re just going to monitor and they’re not expecting any time of catastrophic failure at this time,” Spann said.
More pumps are on their way to try to relieve some of the pressure before it rains again. Once the water stops coming over the top, crews will also try to repair some of the erosion damage, he said.
Ironically, Spann said just a few weeks ago the lake was dry. The dam was in the process of being rebuilt.
Courtesy of fox4news.com
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