The Flood of 1996

[The public] want to know from the horse's mouth. They'll call us [the Corps]. So, for example, in '96 on the 18th and 19th of November when we were having the flood event we probably took 150 calls here or some more than that. I mean, there were two of us answering the phones and as soon as you put the phone down it would ring again within seconds.
--Herschel Henderly recalling what his Corps office was like during the flood of 1996, 1999 interview.

Is it safer to just be prepared for just ready-made floods that are happening and to live in areas to where you're not going to get flooded or is it safer to have dams and not knowing if it's going to crack or break? And if we do get a lot of rain and it floods out here and the reservoir gets full, they have to let the water out so it's still no matter what you're going to have a flood. It happened here already.
--Carol Logan, 2000 interview.

The Northwest experienced another significant flood in 1996. In November, Cottage Grove and Dorena reservoirs filled with the waters from a two-hundred year flood but Herschel Henderly said it was "theoretically the best possible event." The reservoirs were low prior to the flood so they had full flood control capacity. The flood happened rapidly with heavy rains and water flows followed by clear skies and reduced flows. Despite this, Henderly discharged more water through Dorena than ever before. He recalls that "if we had stuck with the normal operating perimeters, we would have run over the spillway and lost control" of the flood waters. For some, the magnitude of recent floods and the environmental effects of flood control raise crucial questions about our decision to live and work in historic floodplains.

Herschel Henderly's account of the 1996 flood

Flow Records from Dorena and Cottage Grove Dams

Cottage Grove Sentinel Article about the Flood