Dam Disasters

Great Sheffield flood

The Great Sheffield Flood, also known as the Great Inundation, was a disaster which devastated parts of Sheffield, England on March 11th 1864. The flood resulted in more deaths than any other disaster in Britain before or since.

The flood occurred when the Dale Dyke Dam, under construction above Low Bradfield on the River Loxley burst. This sent huges waves of water flooding down the valley, through Loxley and Hillsborough, and then down the River Don through central Sheffield, Attercliffe and as far as Rotherham. The estimated 3 million m³ (700 million imperial gallons) of water destroyed 800 houses, killing 270 people, and wrecking every bridge as far as the Lady's Bridge in the city centre. Bodies swept by the flood waters were later found as far afield as Mexborough.

Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood occurred on May 31, 1889, and was the result of the failure of the South Fork Dam situated 14 miles upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Debris above the Pennsylvania Railroad BridgeThe area surrounding the town was already prone to flooding due to its positioning on the confluence of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh rivers, and due to the artificial straightening of these rivers for the purposes of development. Then, in the middle of the afternoon of the 31st, the dam burst, allowing the water formerly held back in the 3-mile long Lake Conemaugh to cascade down the Little Conemaugh river.

The inhabitants of the town were caught by surprise as the wall of water bore down on the village, travelling at 40 miles per hour and reaching a height of 60 feet in places. Some, realising the danger, tried to escape, but most people were hit by the surging flood water. Many people were crushed by pieces of debris, and others became caught in barbed wire from the wire factory upstream. For those that sought safety in attics, and for those that managed to stay aloft of the flood water on pieces of floating debris, the worst was to come, as they were forced to wait for hours for help to arrive. Meanwhile, some people who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as debris that had piled up against the Stone Bridge caught fire, killing 80 people. The total death toll for the disaster was 2,200, and clean-up operations were to continue for many years to come. It was one of the worst floods to hit the US in the 19th century.

In the years following the event, many people blamed the South Fork Fishing and Forestry Club for the tragedy as they had originally bought and repaired the dam to turn the area into a holiday retreat in the mountains. However, they failed to properly maintain the dam, and as a result, heavy rainfall on the eve of the disaster meant that the structure was not strong enough to hold the excess water. Despite the evidence to suggest that they were very much to blame, they were never held responsible for the disaster.

St. Francis Dam

The St. Francis Dam was a concrete arched gravity dam built in 1924-1926 by William Mulholland, engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, as a large reservoir near the City of Los Angeles. Minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed (collapsed) and over 400 people were killed by the resulting flood.

Editing Vajont Dam Disaster

To start the article, type in the box below and click "Save page". Your changes will be visible immediately.

Please do not create an article to promote yourself, a website, a product, or a business (see Wikipedia:Policy).

If you are new to Wikipedia, please read the tutorial before creating your first article, or use the sandbox for experiments.