Frank Reid © 2008 wrote:
So what happens next? They'd better figure something out fast.
If 3500cfs goes over the damn all winter, ice jams will wash out
every bridge between Quake Lake and the dam at McAllister.
Uncontrolled ice dams might knock the willy off that damn dam too.

Okay, wouldn't Quake Lake take the brunt of this? Quake is right
below Hebgen. I'm trying to figure out the dynamics here.
Frank Reid

This isn't a dam collapse story. It's all about flow levels.
What ever flows into quake lake will also flow (at that rate)
out of quake lake. The Madison is currently high and muddy and not
fishing at all.

3500cfs has never happened in winter. The riverbed isn't big enough
to handle it in cold weather. 3500cfs in February would build up
ice jambs 50 feet high.

They need to figure out a way to restrict the uncontrolled flow (now
feeding out off the bottom of the lake). They probably will figure out
how to plug that tube, temporarily. But they will have to fix it
eventually. To do that--without draining the lake--would be an
engineering miracle, the way I see it.