[Ron61]

Joe,

How far above the full mark can it go before the water starts running down the spillway? Here, if they don't shut the drum gates it can only go a very little above the full mark before it starts. But with all of these canyons for it to spread back up into it takes a lot of water to raise the level a foot once it gets close to full.

Mike,

I know the canyons down around Santa Barbara as I have hiked and climbed through many of them when I lived there. Believe me, they do not compare to some that we have here. The ones just past the dam are over a mile deep and the sides are very steep. That is why it is so hard for them to fight fires here and the crown fires just go everywhere. Even the fire planes have to be careful of these deep canyons as they are sometimes well below the top of the canyon walls and all of the updrafts and smoke causes more crashes than you like to hear of. Now they mostly try to use helicopters for the really deep ones and that is only to slow the fires down to get people out and let them establish a fire line where they can get bulldozers and equipment.

Ron