U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northwestern Division的动态

This was Sunday, as flows came into one of Portland District's reservoirs—the result of back-to-back atmospheric rivers that pounded our region with heavy rain. ? This once-raging water is now sitting behind Blue River Dam, one of their13 dams in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, located in the McKenzie River Basin about 40 miles from the city of Eugene. ? If torrents like this traveled far enough downstream, they would eventually reach our communities, where they could cause serious—in some cases devastating—flooding. ? This is the primary reason why Portland District built the Willamette Valley system of dams (between 1940 and 1969): to protect communities from flood risk. ? It's why you’ll see the water in their reservoirs all across the valley looking their lowest in the late fall and early winter. They keep the reservoirs at their minimum levels, so we have space to store rainfall when a storm—like the one that battered the Pacific Northwest over the weekend—comes their way. ? This has remained the primary purpose of the Willamette Valley dams and reservoirs. Today, the system saves the state of Oregon and taxpayers an estimated $1 billion in averted flood damages every year.