Breaking: Dam failure in Iowa..

[SoCalDem]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700050561/Water-gushes-through-failed-Iowa-dam.html


Water flows over the Saylorville Lake spillway, Thursday, July 1, 2010, near Des Moines, Iowa. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers slowly lowered an inflatable dam Thursday to release some of the water that's been building in the lake …
Water gushes through failed Iowa dam

By Adam Belz and Daniel P. Finney

Des Moines Register
Published: Saturday, July 24, 2010 2:31 p.m. MDT


DELHI, Iowa — A 200-foot breach opened at the top of an Iowa dam Saturday and water gushed uncontrolled from a rain-swollen lake, officials said. The dam failure realized officials' worst fears of "a catastrophic release of water," said David Fink, Lake Delhi dam operations manager. "It's going to have a hell of a lot of velocity."

Disaster management officials evacuated some of the 900 people at a nearby resort community, and worried eyes turned toward the towns of Hopkinton, population 650, and Monticello, population 3,700, downstream along the Maquoketa River. The breach opened at about 11:30 a.m. EDT, and by Saturday afternoon, chunks of a two-lane county highway were breaking off in 15- and 30-foot blocks and washing away. The iron guard rail snapped and flapped like a party streamer as the water rushed by.

Volunteer firefighters ushered onlookers away from the dam as utility poles slid into the water, snapping power lines.

A propane tank under the dam exploded and flamed out after about 20 seconds. Boats drifting on the lake tumbled over the dam. Rep. Bruce Braley, a Waterloo Democrat, who watched the disaster on site Saturday afternoon, pledged to call the White House to push for a federal disaster declaration.

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Yikes!

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. This isn't good

[nosmokes]

3. At least we don't have any pressing infrastructure problems here in the States

and we can easily afford to wage two unnecessary and pointless wars against countries that pose little or no threat to us.

[racaulk]

4. +1

[aquart]

5. No reason to start a jobs program to repair and restore that infrastructure.

Wait. We're doing a lot of Republican-planned out of the box projects. That's good enough.

[Bluebear]

9. +++

[nosmokes]

15. You mean something like the WPA?

I dunno aquart, you're getting dangerously close to an actual solution. I don't think that's allowed.

[Myrina]

6. Ding Ding Ding -- we have a winner!

Unfortunately. Sigh.

[SoCalDem]

7. maintenance issues

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8809463

[blm]

8. We're in 2 unnecessary wars chosen by Bush and made sure the rich were taxed less because

we had so much money in this nation to spare the last 10years. And military personnel.

[pansypoo53219]

10. sounds a lot like jonestown.

resort area?

[Skidmore]

11. They had a foot of rain last night in that area.

Iowa has gotten hammered for the past 3 years with heavy rains in the summer and huge snowstorms in the winter. We have had two 500 year floods within a decade. In our area, we have watched a section of communal fields and pasturelands become a marshland, complete with reeds and waterlilies. Willows are thriving and many other trees were killed in the unending flood of run-off. Our yard is a freakin' swamp and growing a garden is not feasible with this weather. Ground is saturated and squishes when you walk on it.

[uppityperson]

12. links to posts with more articles, links to vid, picts

posted in LBN by me.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4477400&mesg_id=4477564
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4477400&mesg_id=4477562

[SoCalDem]

13. link to my post about maintenance issues from 2007

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8809463

[uppityperson]

14. Thank you. nt