Lk Isabella Dam Article & Query

Photo by Casey Christie

Cattle graze in a field on Barlow Drive on Friday in Lake Isabella with the Auxiliary Dam on Isabella Lake as a backdrop.

Isabella dam: Deluge of questions
BY GRETCHEN WENNER, Californian staff writer
e-mail| Saturday, Jun 17 2006 8:20 PM

Last Updated: Saturday, Jun 17 2006 9:50 PM

Let's say the unthinkable -- and unlikely -- happens: Isabella Dam breaks and a wall of water rushes toward Bakersfield.

Denise and Dave Barzee hold up several trout they caught Friday at Isabella Lake at the base of the Auxiliary Dam.
Video:Isabelladamconcern.source.wmv

* Concern over Isabella Dam rises (3:11)

Should you evacuate or hunker down?

Chances are, you don't know.

Chances are no one does. Not yet, anyway.

Broad-stroke inundation maps show generalized areas of shallow and deep flooding throughout the county.

Locals already know parts of Bakersfield could be under 30 feet of water in a worst-case scenario. They know a worrisome spot at the base of the auxiliary dam triggered emergency lake reductions starting in late April.

They know the dam's potential to kill -- 400,000 people could be "affected," though fatality numbers haven't been specified -- shot Isabella to the No. 1 priority spot nationwide among dams owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But no map or database, apparently, answers the question burning on many people's minds: Will my house be under water?

Georgianna Armstrong, manager of the county's emergency services office, said she's getting plenty of calls.

Folks give her their address and ask: Is water coming my way?

She tells them: "I can't give you that information until experts provide it to me."

The county has maps galore. It has a computerized system to stack layers of information over geographical areas. Want to know if a certain school is in a wildfire-prone area, for example? No problem.

When it comes to Isabella Dam, maps show how long water would take to get to various parts of the county and give generic flooding information.

The missing link -- how deep floodwaters might get at a specific address -- isn't available, Armstrong said.

"I'd give my left foot for something like that," she said.

What's needed are complex studies by the corps.

"The Army Corps said those would cost $300,000 to do," Armstrong said.

But the corps is almost out of money for Isabella issues until Oct. 1, when the federal government's new fiscal year begins.

Until then, engineers have about $60,000 left to spend, said John Hess, a chief engineer with the corps' Sacramento division, during a visit to Bakersfield Tuesday

Hess said his office requested that money be re-routed from other corps projects but was denied.

Laws restrict staffers' efforts to budgeted projects, he said, and Isabella's problems cropped up after the fiscal year started.

The plans

Updated evacuation plans are in the works due to new concerns about Isabella, especially in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina fiasco.

A single plan covering the city and county will probably be the end result.

In the meantime, depending on where you live, a dam-related emergency evacuation could be relatively orderly or a stab in the dark.

The county's evacuation plan, on one hand, is woefully out of date, officials admit. Phone numbers list the old "805" area code, for example. Warning sirens mentioned in the undated document probably don't exist anymore.

Nuts-and-bolts evacuation procedures are skimpy.

Folks who live immediately below the dam -- those most at risk -- would simply be told by officers in roving squad cars to "evacuate via Highway 178 to high ground above flood waters."

Neither Armstrong nor the county's disaster point man, Fire Chief Dennis Thompson, knew even a ballpark estimate of how many people live immediately below the dam.

For city residents, on the other hand, a workable plan is in place.

The Bakersfield Police Department's detailed evacuation blueprint was completed in the 1980s, said police Detective Ryan Paslay.

It needs revamping and updating, he said.

If the dam broke tomorrow, though, "we would follow that model as the basic plan of attack," Paslay said.

The police plan contains more than 70 maps. Each provides exit routes for a small area to be managed by an officer or two.

From a bird's-eye perspective, evacuation operations would move folks either to high ground or out of town altogether.

City residents would generally be directed south or east from most parts of town.

Areas north of 24th Street would be evacuated north to Oildale.

The city's 24 primary intersections and exit routes are:

1. Columbus Street and Union Avenue: Traffic to be directed north to Oildale and west to the College Heights area.

2. 34th Street and Union: Traffic to go south to Highway 178 then east to a hilly area on 178.

3. HIghway 178 and Union: Westbound and northbound cars to go east on 178 to hilly area.

4. Sumner Street and Union: Northbound cars to go north on Golden State Highway or east on Sumner.

5. 21st Street and Golden State: Northbound cars to go north on Golden State until notified otherwise; then northbound and eastbound traffic would go east on Sumner toward Oswell Street.

6. California Avenue and Union: Northbound and westbound cars to go south on Union or east on California.

7. 24th and Chester: Westbound traffic to go south on Chester.

8. 23rd Street and Chester: Northbound traffic to go east. Southbound traffic to continue south.

9. 23rd and H Street: All cars to go east or south.

10. Truxtun Avenue and Chester: Northbound and westbound cars to go south or east.

11. Truxtun and H: Northbound and westbound cars to go south or east.

12. California and Chester: Northbound and westbound cars to go south or east.

13. California and H: Northbound and westbound cars to go south or east.

14. 24th and Highway 99: Cars heading east or west to go on 99 north or south.

15. California and 99: Eastbound cars to go on 99 heading north. Westbound cars to go on 99 heading south.

16. California and Oak Street: Cars headed north or west to go south on 99.

17. Stockdale Highway and California: Cars heading west to go south. Cars heading east to continue east. Cars heading north to go eastbound on Highway 58.

18. Stockdale and Real Road: Cars heading east or west to go eastbound on Highway 58.

19. Brundage Lane and Chester: Cars heading east or west to go south on Chester.

20. Chester and Highway 58: Cars heading north to go east on 58. Cars heading south to go east on 58 or south on Chester.

21. South Chester and Ming Avenue: Cars heading east or west to go south. Cars heading north to go east on Ming then south on South Union.

22. South H and Ming: Cars heading east or west to go south. Cars heading north to go east, then south on South Chester.

23. Ming, Wible Road and 99: Cars going east, west or north to go south on either Wible or 99.

24. New Stine Road and Ming: Cars heading east or west to go south on Stine. Cars heading north to go west on Ming.

My question on this is if it took 4 hours for the water to flood Bakersfield will all the folks driving know the above? I doubt it especially if they have been at work all day?
Also, Is the owner of the dam, the Army Corps of Engineers going to repair this dam? If so, when?