I am thinking they cant open another gate until Mansfield dam reaches 710.
Bc the current CFS ourflow is approx 28K....they aren’t allowed to exceed 30k CFS and/nor if the Austin flood gauge exceeds 33ft. With 4 gates open..that is a CFS of approximately 7k...so if then ope another ir would push them above the 30K cfs.
Yes that is “protocol” ..nothing above 30Kcfs until above 710 feet...
but the lake wasn’t forecast to be that high for a couple more days but they almost did it anyway.if fact that was the plan until midday today to open 8 gates
the question is what were they worried about that made them almost release 50,000 cfs today with the lake ‘only” at 702 feet? And why did they change it?
If they wait till the lake is 710 feet and open 8 gates..(i.e. 50K).and inflow into the lake is above 50,000 cfs. then they lake would still rise
if another heavy rain storm hits during that time and inflow is much higher (i.e. over 100cfs ) then it would rise high enough to overflow the spillway at 714 feet
then there would be 8 gates open plus whatever is flowing over the spillway out of control