220924-A-AZ289-4760
The Portugues Dam, Puerto Rico; according to the National Hurricane Center, the island was inundated by large amounts of rainfall, anywhere from 12 to 30 inches of rain. United States Army Corps of Engineers designed and built the Portuguese and Cerrillos Dams. They are critical to the mitigation of flooding in the region. The two dams were able to hold approximately 16,000 acre-feet of water combined during Hurricane Fiona, which is the equivalent of filling Plaza Del Caribe Mall almost 16 times. This volume of water would have flooded almost the entire urban area downstream of the dams. Rough preliminary estimates for the prevention of flood damages from both dams and associated channels are over $100 million. More importantly, thousands of lives were saved.

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Photo by: Brigida Sanchez |  VIRIN: 220924-A-AZ289-4717.JPG