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[revlob]

I've just carved a channel on the surface level, but one of the designated tiles on the z-level below was a wall between an underground extension of the nearby stream and my fort. I've paused it just a couple of seconds after noticing, is there anything I can do to save my fortress? Have I just created a magnificent aquarium and should put it down to experience and remember to be more careful in future?

[AltF8]

I believe this falls under the category of "Fun". Any way that doors will stop the flooding? I'm no expert on cave-ins, but I've heard they can sometimes be used to "plug" this sort of thing.

[Taranli Maren]

Since the channel was on the surface, I don't think a cave-in will help you in this case.  The only way I can think of would be to build walls/doors/floors to seal off that area of your fortress quick as you can.

Can you close the stream extension?  If so, that could minimize the flooding.

[Psieye]

A cave-in needs to be of natural stone to plug it up. First you must limit your losses, build doors/walls to limit the areas flooded. Then you'll need to churn out some screw pumps. Pump out the source of the water enough that you can build a wall there. Now that the source is blocked off, you can pump out the water in your fort itself.

Mind you, this is a heck of a lot of work. If you limit your losses, you can just ignore the flooded sections or even put a glass floor on top so you have something interesting to look at (but your dwarves don't know how to look through glass floors as it's opaque to them).

[Hyndis]

Do you have any doors? Be sure to lock them! That will at least contain the flooding. Any dwarves trapped in flooded areas will probably perish, but best to let them perish and lock the doors rather than doom the entire fort.

Once the flood is contained you can get pumps in there to start draining the flooding and then wall off the breech once it becomes dry enough.

[revlob]

Some sound advice, although due to my habit of building open passageways, and staircases three-tiles-wide, I don't think I can put walls/doors up fast enough!

Thanks all, will abandon this fort but learn to be more careful in future!

[Taranli Maren]

There is another way, you could quickly dig a drain near the leak.  A column of stairs going down and down is fast, and will probably intersect a cavern at some point.  This might buy you some time, though it may drown your miner. Digging up instead of down *might* be more reliable.

[slothen]

dont abandon, even if you stop giving orders, its your duty to watch your fortress die!

[telarin]

As an alternate option, you may be able to dig a drain down into one of the caverns. Water drains down up/down stairs just fine, and if an area is already flooded, you can actually channel it from below as long as you have an up or up/down stairway beneath it.

[CapnKorin]

I accidently poked a hole in an underground river. Thankfully I had prepared a tightly sealed door for my miner to escape. He ran out, slammed the door behind him and rode the little wave of water almost to the stairwell. Eventually the water receded or dried up, and now I have a nice improvised floodgate made out of a stone door. Perfecting it later, but right now I have plenty of room to make a farm.

[Lord Darkstar]

CapnKorin, remember to forbid that door. And you might want to wall it in--- just in case some building destroy starts going through your fortress--- as they'll smash a "forbidden" door, and then you'll have a flooded fort. But wall it off, and your fortress is safe.

revlob, constructing walls is relatively fast when you use the nearest rock. PARTICULARLY if you set everyone to be masons, as then everyone will grab a rock and go stand around constructing their bit of wall. Just designate many layers, so that if any dwarf is particularly slow or decides to stop in the middle of applying that last stone to the wall to complete wall off the passage to go eat, drink, or sleep, you have a backup wall to stop the flood water.

You can even construct the walls so that the dwarves don't wall themselves in with the water. That way, you can preserve as many of your dwarves as possible. Just use the suspended construction technique. (That is, order a second wall constructed besides your "real" desired location, and set that wall to suspended. Dwarves will stand on the otherside where there isn't a construction designated to build the real wall. Remove suspended construction wall tiles after real wall is completed.)

[Tale]

Does the river freeze in the winter?

[Lord Darkstar]

If you are in a cold enough embarkation location. In fact, if you are in a really cold location, the river will stay frozen year round--- or a part of it will, if you are on a mixture of "artic" and "cold" biomes.

[Cotes]

Hah, I almost accidentally flooded half a cavern by mining out an aquifer stone. The half I had carefully sealed off from the other because that one was flooding. What made it even worse was that it happened about four levels above the cavern floor next to an open staircase, so any effort of trying to seal it ended up with my dwarves flying through air due to water pressure.

I did eventually manage to seal it with pure determination and one or two strategically removed wall tiles. Half my masons were crippled though.

It was a great map. The aquifer actually overlapped with the first cavern and was already flooding into it at one spot on its own. The second cavern was even more odd: Every now and then a random cave-in would occur as one wall or floor tile would come loose from the roof/a stalagmite. Hell, I don't even know what exactly was happening in there, but it was pretty awesome.

[Vertigon]

Does the river freeze in the winter?

If you are in a cold enough embarkation location. In fact, if you are in a really cold location, the river will stay frozen year round--- or a part of it will, if you are on a mixture of "artic" and "cold" biomes.

I'm fairly certain he was asking the OP if his river froze. Edit: Freezes, it would be.