"It (the dam) actually performed fairly well. But there has been some damage, of which we are concerned, and which will require some remedial work," Marble said.

"While we are concerned, we are not alarmed. It is very important we do not raise a panic and make people think they need to evacuate," Marble said. "There are concerns, but we do not see anything at this point" to make officials believe the dam cannot handle spring runoff or that it needs to have its storage restricted.

While Marble said that "any of the dams that do not meet our current standards we would call unsafe," that is only for extreme events, such as heavy flooding or earthquakes.

He said most of the dams rated as "unsafe" can handle routine years and operations safely, or inspectors would take actions to close them. He does acknowledge, however, that some dams in the state "are leakers and saggers."

Still, Marble stressed that any dam in the state that inspectors believe could pose an immediate threat would face emergency actions, such as restricting storage. "If there is something we can see and determine that it's deteriorating, something that is an imminent safety concern, we can deal with that immediately."

He said the monitoring equipment at virtually all high hazard dams in the state should help residents feel more safe, as should the repairs and replacements of the most dangerous dams in recent years.

"For those who haven't had their dams fixed, I would emphasize again that . . . we are out there inspecting and monitoring these dams. We've got all the high hazard dams now instrumented. We are collecting that data. We are reviewing that data," Marble said.

"I can't say that's 100 percent sure, but we are doing all that is possible to address the safety concerns, even before they get fixed. If there is anything we can do to prevent a catastrophe, we will do that," he said.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com