TBD

Authors

  • Charles Hoes Hoes Engineering

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56094/jss.v53i1.97

Keywords:

dam, system safety, Oroville spillway

Abstract

Spring has just about sprung as I write this where I am. Of course, many might question whether or not that even applies to California? What that means is there’s a good chance we are past the worst of the winter storms. If we remain incredibly lucky, California’s Oroville Dam might actually hold together long enough for critical repairs to be completed this spring and summer. I don’t think people appreciate just how close the spillway failure came to being a massive, unbelievable catastrophe. When the powers that be issued the emergency evacuation order for the surrounding communities, they fully expected the spillway to burst within the hour. They didn’t say that it “might” fail within the hour; they said that it “would” fail within the hour. Luckily, they were wrong. It is not clear how large a catastrophe that would have unleashed, but it would have been far larger than 200,000 people running for their lives indicates. That, as they say, would have been just the tip of the iceberg.

Author Biography

Charles Hoes, Hoes Engineering

Charles “Charlie” Hoes began his consulting business in 1984, providing system safety engineering services to defense, aerospace, semiconductor and general industry. During that time he has become a P.E. in Safety in the State of California, a Certified Safety Profession (CSP) with a specialty System Safety Practices and earned a Master of Science degree in Safety from University of Southern California. In 1988 Charlie incorporated his business under the name of “Hoes Engineering, Inc.” He has many years of experience volunteering in support of the International System Safety Society, filling many positions including past President of the Sacramento Chapter, the Virtual Chapter, and the System Safety Society. He is a past technical editor of the System Society’s journal Hazard Prevention (re-named to be the Journal of System Safety), as well as authoring an ongoing feature article of the Journal of System Safety called “TBD” where he discusses current concerns with the system safety profession.

In his new role of being semi-retired, Charlie continues to actively work with the System Safety Society as well as participating in a few “for hire” and volunteer projects that are particularly interesting, or important, for a variety of reasons. He is enjoying the ability of being a bit more selective with regard to projects that he accepts.

TBD

Downloads

Published

2017-04-01

How to Cite

Hoes, C. (2017). TBD. Journal of System Safety, 53(1), 8–9. https://doi.org/10.56094/jss.v53i1.97