In Folsom, grumpy drivers and irritated officials are dismayed by a federal decision to bar vehicles from the road across dam. War can come home in many ways. For this bustling little city, it hits each morning and evening with a traffic jam. Commuters used to avoid the narrow, Gold Rush-era streets of the city’s historic downtown by steering onto a two-lane shortcut atop Folsom Dam’s massive concrete cap. But a few weeks before the war in Iraq, federal officials shut down the dam’s old road, sending 18,000 extra motorists each day onto Folsom’s aging streets. Gridlock has come because authorities fear a terrorist bomb could shatter the seemingly unassailable, 280-foot-high dam and send a torrent of water rushing toward Sacramento, 20 miles west. Within hours of such an event, officials warn, the Capitol dome could be surrounded by flood waters a dozen feet deep. Such a nightmare scenario isn’t lost on Folsom’s residents. They’re not short on patriotism. And they’re not above compromise for the good of the country. Full Story
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