Each of the three dams has an emergency action plan for people to follow in case of a breech, but less than 40 percent of dams nationally have such a plan, according to James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Witt spoke to the dam safety experts in the ballroom of Washington's Willard Inter-Continental Hotel ~ the same spot where American Red Cross founder Clara Barton was feted in 1889 after spending months tending to the Johnstown victims. "The failure not only to operate and maintain safe dams, but also to plan in advance for failure, can have catastrophic consequences," he warned. Lance Peterson, deputy director of Weber County Emergency Management, said that if Pineview Dam failed, Ogden Canyon, much of central Ogden, the DDO, Plain City, Warren and Marriott-Slatersville all sit in the flood zone. The county's emergency response plan calls for three alarms of elevated danger, with the third alarm meaning the dam has failed or failure is imminent, he said. Emergency crews would station themselves accordingly, and would likely begin to evacuate people on the second alarm. Most Americans don't even know there are many dams nearby, officials said. But they have been created by farmers, small businesses, cooperatives, homeowners associations, utilities and others to provide water for power, irrigation, recreation and a variety of uses. While the giant federal dam and power projects are the best known, some 95 percent of the nation's dams are regulated by state authorities, explained Edwin Fiegle II of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, who is president of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. North Carolina has the most high-hazard dams, 874, according to FEMA and the state dam safety officials. Being designated as high-hazard does not mean that a dam is deficient or in danger of failing. Rather it indicates the potential for damage and loss of life if the dam should fail because of flooding, earthquake or other reasons. 301