Workers rushed to rebuild the countryside. Utah The dam was built after a 60-foot (18-meter) crack opened, allowing water to flow into a stream and endangering 1,700 residents of the town downstream.
State and local officials do not believe the Lake Panguitch dam is in imminent danger of failure, but are telling residents to prepare to evacuate if conditions worsen. Everett Taylor, assistant state engineer for dam safety with the Utah Department of Water Rights, said it will take several days to lower the reservoir below the affected area.
As of Wednesday evening, about 2 feet (61 centimeters) of water remained above the crack, and nearly 45 feet (14 meters) of the crack was covered in rock, he said.
Taylor said the ice sheet above the reservoir was pushing up against the dam, causing the top to crack and tilt downstream, causing water to gush out from the opening. He said the ice sheet is now peeling away from the dam, and the top of the dam is tilting back.
„We cut through that ice sheet to relieve pressure on the dam,“ Taylor said.
A community meeting was scheduled for Wednesday to update residents and answer their questions in Panguitch, a town of about 1,800 people about 10 miles (16 kilometers) downstream from the dam. Another small town, Circleville, is further downstream and is at lower risk.
Local officials discovered a crack in the top of the dam during an inspection Monday night, and Utah officials announced it to the public Tuesday.
Nearly 260 cubic feet (6.5 cubic meters) of water is being released per second to draw down the reservoir beneath the fissure, and large boulders are being trucked in and placed on the downstream side of the dam to support the walls. No rain is forecast until Saturday.
The dam was built in the late 1800s, but the cracked top was added to the top of the dam in the 1930s and 1940s. Mr Taylor said there had been no previous concerns about the structural integrity of the dam.
„No one expected this,“ he said, adding that he was encouraged by the progress being made.
State officials called this a Level 2 collapse risk. This is a designation that falls in the middle of a three-level rating, meaning there is a possibility of a dam bursting.
„We're going to continue to focus on retracting the reservoir and making sure the ice is kept away from the dam, and we're going to continue to strengthen or support this downstream,“ Taylor said.