ARKABUTLA LAKE - Thanks to this weeks rain we have the potential for new flood watches for the East Delta due to the situation at the Arkabutla Dam. 

Once again heavy rainfall has caused the level of Arkabutla Lake to rise to a level where they may issue a flood watch. Now remember, the dam here has been under stress because of a possible breach situation, which is being addressed right now. But in the meantime, they're keeping the level of the lake artificially low to prevent some damage down river and prevent damage to the dam.

Now, what's happening is they're increasing the releases of water from here into the spillway, and on down river. The Corps of Engineers hopes that by releasing more water down river, it will release some of the stress and create some more capacity here at the lake.

But right now it's brought minor flooding down to the Marks area. Marks has minor flooding right now. And the hope is, to keep them high and dry. While they can still bring the level of this lake down.

At the emergency spillway. You can see there's no danger. The part of the lake normally has water in it.  Back away from the shore you can see some water back in there. That's how much rain that we've had over the last few days. At the dam headquarters they still say there's no need for alarm. This is just a precautionary measure.

Meantime repairs on the dam continue. They say it's a long term project. In the meantime, they're gonna be managing the water levels here at the lake and down the river to make sure nobody gets flooded.

But we will see these flood watches off and on until the process is finished.