Lake's dike urgently needs work

A new report on Lake Okeechobee warns of severe storm danger.

WEST PALM BEACH - The aging earthen dike around Lake Okeechobee - the only barrier between the second-largest freshwater body in the contiguous United States and thousands of residents - presents an "urgent and compelling" need for repairs, according to a report released Friday.

The report by a panel of independent experts, commissioned by the Army Corps of Engineers, recommends keeping lake levels low until repairs are completed and studying a spillway to release water rapidly in the event of a storm.

Recent studies have shown the dike is in dire need of repair.

One report last year found the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike has nearly failed several times in the past decade and was "a grave and imminent danger" to human life. About 45,000 people live in the lake's immediate flood zone.

Corps officials on Friday stressed that work is being done as quickly as possible.

"You can't just snap your fingers and have these things happen overnight," said Eric Halpin, the agency's special assistant for dam and levee safety.

The corps is working on the dike's most distressed sections along the lake's southern rim nearest to communities, but those fixes aren't expected to be complete until 2020. The entire $856-million project could take up to 20 years to finish.

Even with work under way and hot spots identified, residents along the lake shouldn't rest too easy.

"The 100-year flood could happen tomorrow afternoon," said the corps' Alan Bugg, chief of construction for dike repair. "We're doing everything we can to mitigate risk."

Up to 2,700 people were killed in Florida in 1928 when hurricanes caused the lake to overflow its banks. Many more people live in the flood zone now.

Dike construction began in 1932 and by 1970, the corps had encircled the 730-square-mile lake's shoreline with muck and sand piled up to 35 feet high.

But it does not meet today's safety standards.

The report noted that if the lake were at 21.5 feet, which has never occurred, dike failure "would be certain." Failure would be "very likely" at 17 feet or higher.

Meanwhile, the corps is already prepared for a potential breach. It has stockpiled 45,000 tons of stone, 415,000 small sandbags and 1,000 4,000-pound bags, the same kind that was airlifted into the breaches of the New Orleans levees after Hurricane Katrina.

[Last modified November 3, 2007, 00:11:55]