I'm Saying Dam Again
After checking out some information on the South Fork Dam that gave way and flooded Johnstown, Pa. in 1889, I started thinking about the St. Francis Dam - although I couldn't remember it's name and had to look it up by referencing Mulholland. It collapsed in a spectacular and deadly fashion two years after the 1926 dedication and released a 2.8 mile long lake which roared toward the ocean. At this site, pdf files can be opened to look at the reports about and impact of the dam collapse. One pdf discusses reassessment of the dam failure and includes this photograph:
At the St. Francis Dam Disaster site you can access quite a bit of additional information, including this paragraph:
Built by the Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply, the St. Francis Dam Disaster was the greatest American Civil Engineering failure of the 20th century when it collapsed on its first filling. As a result of the dam's failure 1,200 homes were damaged, 909 were totally destroyed, 10 bridges were washed out, power was knocked out over a wide area and the communities of Castaic, Piru, Fillmore, Bardsdale, Santa Paula and Saticoy were paralyzed. An exact death toll is impossible because the bodies of many victims were washed out to sea with the floodwaters, but more than 450 people perished that night. It is California's second largest disaster; only the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 claimed more lives.
posted by Jody @ 5:50 PM
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