This is fascinating. Scary as ****, i'd imagine, but fascinating. http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watc ... 6677699597" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tl;dw there's a dam in California (tallest in the U.S.) that's having some serious troubles. The dam itself is apparently not in danger but both the spillway and emergency spillway is ****** but the authoraties have no choice but to use them to release water otherwise the dam overtops, and continuing to use these spillways is damaging them further.

Almost 200,000 people have had to be evacuated.

Those damned Americans, haven't a clue...

Trumps fault

And if the dam breaks open,
Many years too soon.
And if there is no room up on the hill...

Where's Keith Harris when we need him ?

I've just had a business call cancelled because the host is evacuating his house - it's downstream. And that's why I'm on here at my 9am and not in a business call

I read that the US government is investing less than 30% of what is needed to simply maintain/restore their infrastructure such as dams, bridges, Interstate network, railroads and flood defences. Capital investment in new schemes or improvements is minimal. The main issue is that US national politics is totally sold out to the business of getting re-elected so long term strategic planning pays no dividend. No voter wants to be told by their Senator or Congressman that things will be improved in 10 years time. They have been told that then seen nothing happen too many times after a change in the political balance.

California has been badly hit by climate change in that rainfall seems to be more boom or bust than it ever has been in recorded history. Dams are either half empty during times of drought but are then being overfilled when it does rain. Soil erosion is massive under both extremely dry conditions and flood conditions which is what has caused the problems at the Oroville spillways from reading the news reports.

Lord Beamish wrote:And if the dam breaks open,
Many years too soon.
And if there is no room up on the hill...

And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

Why do people build houses within the vicinity of Dams or why do people build dams within the vicinity of houses.. Pretty strange ideas some people .

Brexit

A very good friend of mine has just evacuated from their house in Marysville to Magalia with his wife and newborn baby girl, he took us on a walk along one of the levys last week, it was pretty scary even then, a lot of houses and businesses already underwater.

conyoviejo wrote:Why do people build houses within the vicinity of Dams or why do people build dams within the vicinity of houses.. Pretty strange ideas some people .

Where they build a dam is pretty much limited by where the river valleys are. And people have always built houses by rivers.

does seem odd to decide to live underneath 600 million gallons of water if you ask me.

bfcmik wrote:I read that the US government is investing less than 30% of what is needed to simply maintain/restore their infrastructure such as dams, bridges, Interstate network, railroads and flood defences. Capital investment in new schemes or improvements is minimal. The main issue is that US national politics is totally sold out to the business of getting re-elected so long term strategic planning pays no dividend. No voter wants to be told by their Senator or Congressman that things will be improved in 10 years time. They have been told that then seen nothing happen too many times after a change in the political balance.

California has been badly hit by climate change in that rainfall seems to be more boom or bust than it ever has been in recorded history. Dams are either half empty during times of drought but are then being overfilled when it does rain. Soil erosion is massive under both extremely dry conditions and flood conditions which is what has caused the problems at the Oroville spillways from reading the news reports.

About 60,000 bridges in the US need repairs but Congress blocked Obama's infrastructure spending. Sooner or later people will be killed and it will be purely down to politics.

"It can't burst can it? It can?"

Imploding Turtle wrote:About 60,000 bridges in the US need repairs but Congress blocked Obama's infrastructure spending. Sooner or later people will be killed and it will be purely down to politics.

All hail Trump, our infrastructure savior

NRC wrote:All hail Trump, our infrastructure savior

He'll be impeached too soon for the Republicans to prove their hypocrisy further by passing his infrastructure bill. They'll pass President Pence's though.

This is a serious threat to him. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... g-news-bar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's an amazing album of gifs someone has compiled that shows just how awesome this incident was and how damaging it has been.

https://imgur.com/gallery/mpUge" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

" awesome..."

Yes, "awesome...".

Wile E Coyote wrote:does seem odd to decide to live underneath 600 million gallons of water if you ask me.

Especially after the well documented effects of German Dams being breached in 1943.

I bet the land is dirt cheap in the basin below the dam wall.

ClaretEngineer wrote:Especially after the well documented effects of German Dams being breached in 1943.

I bet the land is dirt cheap in the basin below the dam wall.

Even cheaper under the Mosul dam.

For what its worth, I was in awe at the amount of damage done, so I agree that it was "awesome"

I think Dams are pretty awesome anyway. They are fantastic feats of Civil Engineering. They are even more awesome when they look as if they are about to fail.

That is pretty awesome

Rick_Muller wrote:For what its worth, I was in awe at the amount of damage done, so I agree that it was "awesome"

It's one of my favourite trap terms to upset idiots.

Lord Beamish wrote:I think Dams are pretty awesome anyway. They are fantastic feats of Civil Engineering. They are even more awesome when they look as if they are about to fail.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/ ... -than-isis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Quite a bit of soil being dislodged in the coming months too potentially creating a little goldrush

Imploding Turtle wrote:http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/ ... -than-isis

That's a very worrying read.