On Monday, 13 March 2017 14:31:33 UTC, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 13 Mar 2017 12:34:03 +0000, newshound wrote:

"Look how thin the spillway concrete was at the point where it failed".

Early pictures seemed to show that the spillway had been undermined
before it failed. ie there is errosion above the failure point.

Bit of a rock and hard place. With a reservior getting dangerously
full and likely to get fuller, which would you choose? A large but
controlled release down a spillway that may not withstand it. Or a
lesser release and high probabilty that the dam will fail...

Nice to find someone who had been watching developments with it. From what little I could see of the cross sections of the spillway ramp the concrete looked rather thin (decent thickness of rebar or not.)