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Not really.  I’d suggest making a list of dams in your general area, google them, and see when they were built, who administers them, and who owns the water stored inside them.  If you don’t know where to start, pull out a local map and identify reservoirs and popular recreational areas.  Look at the main water sources (rivers, creeks, etc.) and the topography of your area and see where stuff is flowing to and from.  Don’t just look at dams in your immediate area but, also, pay attention to what’s upstream as a dam failure upstream could easily overwhelm an otherwise good condition dam downstream.  Look up the history of major floods in your area (and supplement by asking folks who were alive and residing in the area fifty to sixty years ago.)  Stuff that caused flooding decades ago and was shored up then is likely to be a problem again at some point in the future. Anything that’s 50+ years old is probably something to be concerned about.  For more details, you could probably inquire further with whatever entity overseas the dam. Much of my knowledge about floods, dams, etc. in my area has been acquired by reading topo maps for hiking, spending time at recreational areas around creeks, rivers, and reservoirs, paying close attention to exhibits in visitor centers in said areas, and asking my mom a lot of questions about floods that took place in our area back in the 1960s.  In fact, I’ve noticed that a lot of the current dams in my area date to the 1970s, suggesting they were built as part of the regional flood control plan that was implemented following the 1960s floods. Part of the premise of the article is that dams built to withstand once-in-a-lifetime worst case scenarios in the mid-20th century are no longer storm worthy because climate change, in many instances, has made those former once-in-a-lifetime scenarios much more common, and the current worst case scenarios, when they happen, now will exceed the limits of those dams. Unfortunately, no easy answers here.  But some fairly simple (and fun!) research can at least give you some ideas of what type of incidents might be in your future. Hope this helps!

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Not really.  I’d suggest making a list of dams in your general area, google them, and see when they were built, who administers them, and who owns the water stored inside them.  If you don’t know where to start, pull out a local map and identify reservoirs and popular recreational areas.  Look at the main water sources (rivers, creeks, etc.) and the topography of your area and see where stuff is flowing to and from.  Don’t just look at dams in your immediate area but, also, pay attention to what’s upstream as a dam failure upstream could easily overwhelm an otherwise good condition dam downstream.  Look up the history of major floods in your area (and supplement by asking folks who were alive and residing in the area fifty to sixty years ago.)  Stuff that caused flooding decades ago and was shored up then is likely to be a problem again at some point in the future. Anything that’s 50+ years old is probably something to be concerned about.  For more details, you could probably inquire further with whatever entity overseas the dam. Much of my knowledge about floods, dams, etc. in my area has been acquired by reading topo maps for hiking, spending time at recreational areas around creeks, rivers, and reservoirs, paying close attention to exhibits in visitor centers in said areas, and asking my mom a lot of questions about floods that took place in our area back in the 1960s.  In fact, I’ve noticed that a lot of the current dams in my area date to the 1970s, suggesting they were built as part of the regional flood control plan that was implemented following the 1960s floods. Part of the premise of the article is that dams built to withstand once-in-a-lifetime worst case scenarios in the mid-20th century are no longer storm worthy because climate change, in many instances, has made those former once-in-a-lifetime scenarios much more common, and the current worst case scenarios, when they happen, now will exceed the limits of those dams. Unfortunately, no easy answers here.  But some fairly simple (and fun!) research can at least give you some ideas of what type of incidents might be in your future. Hope this helps!


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