Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst out into a roar of laughter.
If the reservoir gets too high and the service spillway can't release water fast enough, this structure overflows, preventing the reservoir from reaching and overtopping the crest of the dam.
Operators worked to find a sweet spot in managing these risks, limiting releases from the service spillway as much as possible while still trying to keep the reservoir from overtopping the emergency spillway.
But Cicero had a great deal of political ambition; at a very young age he chose as his basic belief the same one Achilles was said to have had: to always be the best and overtop the rest.
As a result, if a severe storm were to come, the dam wouldn't be able to release enough water to prevent the reservoir level from climbing above the top of the structure, overtopping it and likely causing it to fail.