4 ms·

Why are these called floodgates? Are they designed to do something?

• tssva 5y ago
  During monsoon season large amounts of water flows through the border wall bringing with it larges amount of debris which is caught against the border wall. This can cause two issues. The first is flooding of the land because the accumulation of debris eventually impedes the flow of water through the wall. The second is failure of the border wall itself because of the pressure of the water behind it or from water forcing itself under the blocking wall which undermines the foundation of the wall. The floodgates can be lifted to allow water to freely flow through the wall preventing these issues. The border patrol lifts these gates at the beginning of monsoon season and lowers them again at the end of monsoon season. Although they were originally intended to be raised more the border patrol has taken to only raising them 4 feet in order to prevent vehicles driving through the opened gates. I would guess that either gates were not lifted at all for some reason or that particularly bad rains meant that raising them only 4 feet was not adequate.