Over a hundred homes in the City of Lynchburg, Virginia, were evacuated on the evening of Thursday2 August 2018, following concerns that the Collage Lake Dam might collapse. A total of 34 mm of rain fell in the area on Thursday and 1.65 on Wednesday, causing the already high water to begin to overtop the dam, prompting fears that the structure might fail, which it was predicted would lead to the water on the Blackwater Creek running through the city rising by as much as 5 m in under 7 minutes.
College Lake Dam on Friday 3 August 2018. Not debris on top of dam left by flooding and damage to structure left of centre of image. WSLS 10 News.
Engineers were able to lower water levels bellow the dam by releasing water through side sluices, and by 1.00 pm on Friday 3 August the structure was considered safe. Much of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States has been suffering heavy rainfall and related flooding events this week, driven by exceptionally warm temperatures over the Caribbean, which has led to water soaked air currents pushing northwards, causing problems as far north as Vermont and inland as far as the Mississippi River Valley.
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