codirector of the speed center. it was established ten years ago to address severe storms and their impact on the gulf coast area. professor blackburn thank you for joining us tonight. i'm glad you were able to join us. >> thank you. >> today the army corps of engineers decided to open up the spillways west of houston, west of the downtown. as far as i understand it's basically a way to save the dam to preserve the integrity of the reservoirs, to save a greater amount of people. the short term result is that some neighborhoods face new or worsened flooding. you've studied these things. what do you make of that decision they made today? >> that decision is based on these dams being evaluated as two of the six most dangerous in the united states by the corps. that's both in terms of risk of failure and the population affected downsteam. we've never seen this much rain before and they made i think the prudent decision, although very difficult decision to go ahead