I like this longer video where you can actually get a feel for just how quickly the bank is still eroding and falling into the river! Thank you for providing more than just a useless 10 second clip!
This! I had no idea it was eroding this quickly. This is the most informative video I’ve seen in helping us to understand the magnitude of this event. Thank you!
@@pa5287 bait comment. Obviously referring to a) climate change b) letting a dam exist that had not been generating power for years, was on free-flow for years (thus serving no purpose), and c) letting a dam sit there that was already in poor condition prior to any of this. And before any of you yanks start coming at me with climate change denialism, i come from a country with an actual education system, so don't bother.
Wow. What footage. Especially where you can see it actively eating away at the bank. Some of the best i've seen so far, the aerial view really gives the full picture. Just too much rain/flood water for the dam to handle, and it made it's own emergency spillway. Prayers and condolences to the folks that lost their house. I hope somehow that the cafe will be OK!
This is fantastic footage! And is that the store owners who lost their home there with a little buggy trying to save their belongings from the store before the store goes too? Why isn’t there anyone there helping them? This is so tragic for them. Can you imagine owning your home and your business and presumably the land. Then one day you wake up and all the land is just gone. I mean, how do you even recover that? The land no longer exists. 😭 I feel for them. 😥
It’s time to blow the dam, which has become nothing but an obstruction. Unless and until the water can flow thru that area, the erosion will continue. Looking at the rest of the river, you can see it has several ox-bows. This is on track to become another one. With that plugged up dam intact, it’s only gonna get worse. 😐
With the flow velocities past the piers, and no riprap because it was built in a reservoir, there’s probably a lot of scour going on at that bridge. I don’t think it’s going to survive until Friday.
BEC Sheriff and County officials just said a few hours ago they expect the same. They're moving more people out of the area and have moved back the public viewing spots they had set up on Monday.
It's actually too bad the dam didn't just collapse yesterday. Much of the water had already gone down river, and it likely would have saved all the bank erosion and the house. The dam is done, anyway. ☹️
I don don’t think so. The bank failed but the dam itself never failed. On top of it: a failed dam would fail catastrophic which means you get a massive flood wave downstream. This way the water slowly flooded down without causing much additional destruction.
Now that the river has eroded low enough, the spillways aren’t handling any of the flow, so it’s probably actually eroding faster now, since the new channel is probably carrying more flow now than it was at the height of the flood. It’s also now rapidly removing all of the sediment from the old reservoir, which I think is why the river is now black.
@@frankblangeard8865 A bad design and tough are different things. Bad design because as the water level fell all of the flow was forced 90deg to the left cutting the bank. A good design would have allowed the water to flow through the dam as the levels fell not around it.
Why wasn't the debris cleared from gates so they would open and let the water out instead of it washing over, it looks like this could have been avoided or maybe it doesn't have overflow gates to open
Its as if that river wants its width back and keeps washing away that side! Wonder if it keeps going until that store is gone?! WOW! Such a beautiful piece of land!!!! Will the land owner now own part of that river! WOW! Crazy to see all that go!
Trumps out chasing his own agenda. Certainly not a dam. That costs $$$$. None of which puts $$$ in his campaign. His rallies and pocketbook are more important. I'm shure there's a rally going on right where that dam is.
That business will go next. The flow of water is strong. People have concerns about the highway bridge. Nobody talking about that on the news. Seems mums the word on that subject
It was way too dangerous to try to use heavy equipment on top of a dam that was about to get overtopped. They asked the contractor who not surprisingly declined. You could have volunteered your services though.
i blame the person who did not placed sand bags on the road, forcing the water to overtop the dam itself. That would have damaged handrails etc, but nothing more. it was designed for it.
Is the local utility that owns the Rapidam dam completely incapable? Once the downstream surge risk was reduced, the authorities should have opened or breached the spillways to bring more volume over/through the dam and less volume around the dam. Just letting massive peripheral bank erosion take place when the river flow could have been re-directed straight downstream is a catastrophic human failure.
It would good to have a geologist to tell us what we are looking at. The strata looks like a soft clay. I do wonder if a massive gravel dumping might have shored up the heavy water flow. The dam doesn't appear to be passing any water through what should be flood gates pushing all the water over to erode the bank.
Now we can see how the Grand Canyon came to be . Time to demo the 114 y.o. dam and assess the feasibility of a replacement . As I have commented on other vids , an emergency spillway large enough to handle 500 year flooding should have been built after the 1965 epic floods here , at 1965 construction costs , in the exact location we see the water flowing now . This , then , would not be happening . Sadly it is .
That rock don't roll. Check out the color of the water...that is 115 years of sediment (11 million cubic yards, according to the MN DNR) that is going to be deposited downstream. The dam has not - and will not fail. It is not a flood control structure. However, the county is going to have some environmental cleanup and explaining to do.
I know in an aquarium you have to be careful about disturbing accumulated sediment because there could be toxic by-products of anaerobic decomposition that could be released. Is that kind of thing likely to be a problem for water quality downstream? 80 ft is a lot of sediment. It would be fascinating to see what happens in person. I’m hoping there won’t be horrible fish kills downstream or anything like that.
Not that it matters now, but should'nt they be trying to remove the stumps and debris from the right side of the river bank, to allow water to flow through straighter. One to two bucket cranes would help a lot. At this rate, the river will chew the entire left bank away, and possible wipe out the bridge supports.
Nothing like useing Rip wrap to secure a water way and preventing further erosion. Been watching it from Idaho. Zero attempt of saving anything in its path. Pile and push... Ya dont even have to get close to the edge. My guess is, in comparison to the Baltimore Bridge. They wanted it to fail.
When all this started, I felt bad for the owners of the house that was tumbling into the water. This dam is saving lives even though she has stress put on her. The water was diverted into the one house and play area, the water inadvertently even though rushing gave time for all the others along this river to prepare to move and get shelter. It is devastating to lose, but it is a building that held memories and even those memories cannot be duplicated the memories are what keeps the old building alive. The cafe store is at risk and even though it may be saved or not, it can be replicated and still sell pies. Those building holds memories, but it is the pies that keep people coming back along with getting together and have a good conversation with each other. It is a blessing one house versus many others if that dam broke apart, it is a blessing to others, but the owners of that house can rebuild and have fresh new memories. The next generations to come and make new memories as well as remembering the old. So, prayers are being sent to all the people who are affected by the floodings, stay safe, warm/cool, and blessings to all.
Well it doesn't look like a dam anymore. Now it looks like a really expensive diversion to get the river to go right on around it. What does the real estate look like down river
FYI, this is not a flood control dam, so a downstream flood catastrophe is not an issue. However, the dam has an estimated 11 million cubic yards of sediment built up behind it. This would be an environmental and ecosystem catastrophe, no doubt. The county (owner of the dam) commissioned a study in 2019 to explore removing or repairing the dam. The consultant estimated costs of $15 million to repair, and $85 million to remove. I believe this 'catastrophe' is perhaps the best economic solution to the county's problem. Obtain emergency funds and blame it all on 'God'. This dam was damaged in 1965 during water levels 30% higher than today's "record" floods. It only provided, at its peak, 5Mw of electrical power. This was a big deal in 1910, when power was used for lighting alone, but is only a 'greenwashing' of 'renewable energy' today. NSP then sold it to Blue Earth County, which owns it still, today.
I am watching it now. I thought the same thing. The dam still intact. Perhaps, it got clogged and the water decided cut its own pathway. It is an awesome area. The grass so green.
The dam structure didn't fail but it's design and function certainly failed. A dam should never allow the water to back-up to the point where it has to find a way around.
That river literally cut itself a new path. The only question now is, how much wider will it cut before it settles down? I feel bad for the ones who lost their home and a large chunk of their property to boot.
This is a minor river, for those that do not know the area. It normally runs at around only 40-200 cubic ft/second. It ran around the plugged dam at around 30,000 ft/second. In 1965, it ran at around 45,000 ft/second. So, this should tell you that the dam is not a flood control structure. This is why the downstream people have nothing to fear as far as a devastating flood. This is not the same as the Oroville Dam in California in 2017 (during a 20 year 'drought'!!), wherein a massive reservoir of water is stored behind the dam, requiring the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. This dam is 115 years old and was simply built to provide electricity for a few hundred homes. The house that washed away was the only home built for a reason...it was for employee housing during the build. Ditto the store...it was to sell necessities to the laborers working on the dam. What no one is speaking of, is the 11 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment that had built up behind the dam, making it obsolete. Blue Earth County took over ownership of the dam after the floods of 1965 that damaged the dam beyond its usefulness. In 2002, the county made structural repairs in the amount of $1 million. In 2019, the county paid an engineering consultant to plan the costs of either removing or repairing the dam. It was $15 million to repair and $85 million to remove (which, given 11 million cubic yards of contaminated soil, seems awful cheap). Anyhow, the dam did not fail. The owners failed. But the county can now blame 'global warming' for the hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental damage done downstream, and simply bulldoze the dam, now. Luckily, the area is not populated to the extent that the smell and new pathways created by the deposition of sediment will create. P.S. - The distraction of the bridge pier scouring is meant only to distract from the environmental catastrophe. The piers will be fine with, perhaps, some newly added riprap. They are built on cast-in place pilings with concrete foundations. A short-term situation such as this flooding will not have long-term meaning to the pier's foundations.
Does anyone know if there is an update as of today, Thursday 6/27? I’m hoping the store is still standing but I can’t find any news or footage that shows anything updated from how it looks in this video from Wednesday.
You can tell compared to footage from yesterday there really isn't any water going THROUGH the dam anymore - the entire river flow is now going through the breach cut. That'll make it relatively easy once the flow subsides to isolate the dam completely and prepare to demolish it since it won't make sense to try to keep it now. (Remember, the authorities were already considering demolition BEFORE this happened.)
@@marumiyuhime It will be interesting to see if all that "toxic" sediment causes enough problems downriver to have justified that price tag. I kind of doubt it.
@@gordontaylor2815 Yeah removal was the preferred option, except for the cost. This dam has been a white elephant for the county for many decades. Losing money every year on maintenance and repair while no longer serving much practical purpose, but too expensive to remove.
That bridge was built on top of the sediment that had accumulated behind the dam. With that all getting washed away, I wouldn't be surprised to see that collapse in the next day or two.
@@DustonDiekmann Right, that was part of the expense for the dam removal proposal, saying they would have had to rebuild the bridge with piers going down 80 feet further. That's a lot so it's understandable why they didn't. though it looks like they are going to have to now anyway.
An outdated dam with known issues causes major erosion causing a house to fall into the river. I wonder how that's all going to work out in court, they don't even have their land anymore.
The eroding area is still have more of straight line shape, my layman theory tells me that the bank still continue to eroding until the whole new water path turn into curve line (like a curve of circle) which river will flow more easily, free of resistance. hopefully the people responsible for the situation are aware of this and prepared.
@@Ryan5oh7 The silt behind the dam is filled with toxic chemicals built up there in the past 110 years. That was a big part of the reason the dam wasn't removed.
SCOURING... The word for the day is "SCOURING"... The Reporters need to go back to Reporting School and learn how to brush up on their Reporting Skills, this will allow them to become the best damn Reporters by a Country mile!!!
Have you seen the water moving/the current? All the debris came down river during the storm, it's absolutely not safe for *anyone* to try and remove it until the water level goes down and the river subsides.
And, just one more point those that don't understand the situation. Farmland tends to follow rivers due to the expansive nature of past floods enjoyed by the land. The floods deposited fertile sediment that translated to great crop growth. With the development of drain tile, farmers found a way to drain the low lying and swampy areas that had previously been unfarmable. Many communities also had the money to install dikes and levees, which halted flooding of fields, and led to more developable, taxable, land development. So, after decades of draining lowlands and building levees (along with the impervious concrete and blacktop developments), the water that once fell as rain in swamps, replenishing the aquifers, and spreading outwards from the riverbed, slowly migrating into the flow of water- we now have cropland who's drain tile dumps the water immediately into the rivers, and levees constraining the formerly meandering natural flow - with nowhere else for the water to go. This is the situation today - with higher river levels and lower cubic feet per second flow rates that we have. Bam.
I like this longer video where you can actually get a feel for just how quickly the bank is still eroding and falling into the river! Thank you for providing more than just a useless 10 second clip!
This! I had no idea it was eroding this quickly. This is the most informative video I’ve seen in helping us to understand the magnitude of this event. Thank you!
I know it's odd of saying this it's just wild how erosion works
Nothing beats mother nature for ever. Especially when you ignore her.
what does that even mean
Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature.
@@pa5287 bait comment. Obviously referring to a) climate change b) letting a dam exist that had not been generating power for years, was on free-flow for years (thus serving no purpose), and c) letting a dam sit there that was already in poor condition prior to any of this. And before any of you yanks start coming at me with climate change denialism, i come from a country with an actual education system, so don't bother.
@@shootinputin6332 haha well said
@@pa5287 Nothing, he's just trying to write something hip and pithy
The river always finds a way.
I've been following this story. I really appreciate the high overhead view. No one else is showing that
Wow. What footage. Especially where you can see it actively eating away at the bank. Some of the best i've seen so far, the aerial view really gives the full picture. Just too much rain/flood water for the dam to handle, and it made it's own emergency spillway. Prayers and condolences to the folks that lost their house. I hope somehow that the cafe will be OK!
Once the river finds it's new channel, they should leave it alone, other than the work needed to address safety.
Hey river! We will control you with this dam! River. What dam?
Minnesota is beautiful.
This part is
Thank you for posting this!
This is fantastic footage! And is that the store owners who lost their home there with a little buggy trying to save their belongings from the store before the store goes too? Why isn’t there anyone there helping them? This is so tragic for them. Can you imagine owning your home and your business and presumably the land. Then one day you wake up and all the land is just gone. I mean, how do you even recover that? The land no longer exists. 😭 I feel for them. 😥
This is another example of a failing country. Look at what Iceland is doing to save their structures.
@@cb2000a Agree. Iceland is really going all out to save as much as they can. It’s all hands on deck over there.
It’s time to blow the dam, which has become nothing but an obstruction. Unless and until the water can flow thru that area, the erosion will continue. Looking at the rest of the river, you can see it has several ox-bows. This is on track to become another one. With that plugged up dam intact, it’s only gonna get worse. 😐
Exactly what I was thinking...about the oxbow
With the flow velocities past the piers, and no riprap because it was built in a reservoir, there’s probably a lot of scour going on at that bridge. I don’t think it’s going to survive until Friday.
Agreed
BEC Sheriff and County officials just said a few hours ago they expect the same. They're moving more people out of the area and have moved back the public viewing spots they had set up on Monday.
It's actually too bad the dam didn't just collapse yesterday. Much of the water had already gone down river, and it likely would have saved all the bank erosion and the house. The dam is done, anyway. ☹️
I don don’t think so. The bank failed but the dam itself never failed. On top of it: a failed dam would fail catastrophic which means you get a massive flood wave downstream. This way the water slowly flooded down without causing much additional destruction.
Now that the river has eroded low enough, the spillways aren’t handling any of the flow, so it’s probably actually eroding faster now, since the new channel is probably carrying more flow now than it was at the height of the flood. It’s also now rapidly removing all of the sediment from the old reservoir, which I think is why the river is now black.
Correct. No flow through the dam is bad news and a bad design.
@@DHall-xz7ke Bad design? The dam was built more than a hundred years ago! It would not have lasted all that time without a very good design,
@@frankblangeard8865 A bad design and tough are different things. Bad design because as the water level fell all of the flow was forced 90deg to the left cutting the bank. A good design would have allowed the water to flow through the dam as the levels fell not around it.
@@DHall-xz7ke I suppose you think that this is the first heavy rain in one hundred and fourteen years.
It wouldn't have anything to do with all the debris along the inlet side of the dam? nah, probably not.@DHall-xz7ke
Why wasn't the debris cleared from gates so they would open and let the water out instead of it washing over, it looks like this could have been avoided or maybe it doesn't have overflow gates to open
When did it take the Home ? Looks like the store is next our prayers for the Family
Sometime last night from what I saw on one the news stations. So sad for the family.
Damn i was hoping that house was gonna be spared yesterday but i see now it was swept away 😭
Its as if that river wants its width back and keeps washing away that side! Wonder if it keeps going until that store is gone?! WOW! Such a beautiful piece of land!!!! Will the land owner now own part of that river! WOW! Crazy to see all that go!
I think the store is lost too. The bank is so soft and eroding fast.
If they had done something about the dam sooner the house would still be there.
@@Sonjaorleanswhy didn’t trump fix it?
@@Sonjaorleans She wasn’t alive during his administration so he has more issues than we thought
@@Sonjaorleans Not state money.
Trumps out chasing his own agenda. Certainly not a dam. That costs $$$$. None of which puts $$$ in his campaign. His rallies and pocketbook are more important. I'm shure there's a rally going on right where that dam is.
@@Sonjaorleans? Since when does anything with the government happen Right now? It's not a Dem. or Rep. thing. It's called a natural disaster!
the power of water
I'm wondering how long that bridge will last as the channel cuts lower behind the dam
This shows the power of water. from a scientific standpoint Amazing.. Cutting the bedrock. ty
I think it’s pretty sad that they knew the dam was bad and someone lost their home and business because of it.
That business will go next. The flow of water is strong. People have concerns about the highway bridge. Nobody talking about that on the news. Seems mums the word on that subject
My deepest sympathy to the people who lost their home.
Good fish got the river back for them
I don’t like all the turbulence around the bridge pier…hope it is well founded on durable bedrock…
Those bridge peers are more than likely scoured away underneath. Even rip rap will wash away with that volume of water moving at that speed.
I blame who-ever said / don't bother clearing all the debris blockinng the Dams spillways
I don't think they could've done that safely during the weather event.
It was way too dangerous to try to use heavy equipment on top of a dam that was about to get overtopped. They asked the contractor who not surprisingly declined. You could have volunteered your services though.
i blame the person who did not placed sand bags on the road, forcing the water to overtop the dam itself. That would have damaged handrails etc, but nothing more. it was designed for it.
@@carymarshallfelton9188They had all day yesterday to pull the debris out from the side. Ridiculous .. at least try before you say it's not possible.
@@dfinlen who is going to risk their life on a backhoe on ground that unstable.
Great flight. Thanks for sharing. I have subscribed.
Is the local utility that owns the Rapidam dam completely incapable? Once the downstream surge risk was reduced, the authorities should have opened or breached the spillways to bring more volume over/through the dam and less volume around the dam. Just letting massive peripheral bank erosion take place when the river flow could have been re-directed straight downstream is a catastrophic human failure.
Just a short while ago there was once a house sitting alongside that edge where the layers of dirt are shown in the clip. And now, nothing at all.
For Sale: Large 🏠
Motivated seller
All amenities, especially running water
Act fast, as this listing won't last😮
It would good to have a geologist to tell us what we are looking at. The strata looks like a soft clay. I do wonder if a massive gravel dumping might have shored up the heavy water flow. The dam doesn't appear to be passing any water through what should be flood gates pushing all the water over to erode the bank.
Now we can see how the Grand Canyon came to be . Time to demo the 114 y.o. dam and assess the feasibility of a replacement . As I have commented on other vids , an emergency spillway large enough to handle 500 year flooding should have been built after the 1965 epic floods here , at 1965 construction costs , in the exact location we see the water flowing now . This , then , would not be happening . Sadly it is .
That rock don't roll. Check out the color of the water...that is 115 years of sediment (11 million cubic yards, according to the MN DNR) that is going to be deposited downstream. The dam has not - and will not fail. It is not a flood control structure. However, the county is going to have some environmental cleanup and explaining to do.
I saw a local news show that quoted that it would take $15 million to repair and $50 million to tear down.
Full of toxic chemicals.
I know in an aquarium you have to be careful about disturbing accumulated sediment because there could be toxic by-products of anaerobic decomposition that could be released. Is that kind of thing likely to be a problem for water quality downstream? 80 ft is a lot of sediment. It would be fascinating to see what happens in person. I’m hoping there won’t be horrible fish kills downstream or anything like that.
@@carhasenfratz It is also full of banned pesticides and herbicides from the past 110 years. That is why the removal costs were so high.
Not that it matters now, but should'nt they be trying to remove the stumps and debris from the right side of the river bank, to allow water to flow through straighter. One to two bucket cranes would help a lot. At this rate, the river will chew the entire left bank away, and possible wipe out the bridge supports.
please dont let the dam store fall next
It's starting to look like the bridge upstream is also going to be at risk as it eats away at the bank underneath it.
The helicopter crew/camera missed a good shot of the tree falling in at 8:10.
There has to be a lot of concern about the west side of the bridge with the increased water flow on that side.
The bridge could possibly be next. Yikes 😬
@@theresalynn2544 The river before the dam failure. Blue Earth River: New Scratches in the Canoe - UA-cam
That is a lot of sediment heading downstream.
Incompetence in state and local government at its finest!
Nothing like useing Rip wrap to secure a water way and preventing further erosion.
Been watching it from Idaho.
Zero attempt of saving anything in its path.
Pile and push... Ya dont even have to get close to the edge.
My guess is, in comparison to the Baltimore Bridge. They wanted it to fail.
Is there a Dam plan? What beautiful countryside! 😀
Was that a garden or a cemetery that was falling in I seen its a garden thank God
When all this started, I felt bad for the owners of the house that was tumbling into the water. This dam is saving lives even though she has stress put on her. The water was diverted into the one house and play area, the water inadvertently even though rushing gave time for all the others along this river to prepare to move and get shelter. It is devastating to lose, but it is a building that held memories and even those memories cannot be duplicated the memories are what keeps the old building alive. The cafe store is at risk and even though it may be saved or not, it can be replicated and still sell pies. Those building holds memories, but it is the pies that keep people coming back along with getting together and have a good conversation with each other. It is a blessing one house versus many others if that dam broke apart, it is a blessing to others, but the owners of that house can rebuild and have fresh new memories. The next generations to come and make new memories as well as remembering the old. So, prayers are being sent to all the people who are affected by the floodings, stay safe, warm/cool, and blessings to all.
The quintessential example of our leaders
Looks like the river hit bedrock maybe no more erosion by the damn I hope that damn store is saved 😊
Just hope the bridge supports are safe!
Well it doesn't look like a dam anymore. Now it looks like a really expensive diversion to get the river to go right on around it. What does the real estate look like down river
The little dam that could
Wonder if their property taxes will be reduced.
Wow looks like tons more water coming through there now then there was. Cant believe nothing over the Dam now thats crazy
Well last of a quality build of yesterday
look at the ground strata.. some strange dirt layers did that attribute to the incident?
I smell gold in them banks!
😮The eroded section was awfully close to the dam size, Lord Bless all the folks there, Amen.🙏
FYI, this is not a flood control dam, so a downstream flood catastrophe is not an issue. However, the dam has an estimated 11 million cubic yards of sediment built up behind it. This would be an environmental and ecosystem catastrophe, no doubt. The county (owner of the dam) commissioned a study in 2019 to explore removing or repairing the dam. The consultant estimated costs of $15 million to repair, and $85 million to remove. I believe this 'catastrophe' is perhaps the best economic solution to the county's problem. Obtain emergency funds and blame it all on 'God'.
This dam was damaged in 1965 during water levels 30% higher than today's "record" floods. It only provided, at its peak, 5Mw of electrical power. This was a big deal in 1910, when power was used for lighting alone, but is only a 'greenwashing' of 'renewable energy' today. NSP then sold it to Blue Earth County, which owns it still, today.
"emergency funds". you mean, my tax dollars?
@@CaptainRon1913 Yes!
@@CaptainRon1913 well maybe we can use some of our money here in the states, probably not there is surly a wall in the middle east needing built
I wonder if the erosion of the river bank will continue to threaten the remaining house?
We need to get this straight. The dam didn’t fail. The land bordering it eroded away. Get it right.
I am watching it now. I thought the same thing. The dam still intact. Perhaps, it got clogged and the water decided cut its own pathway. It is an awesome area. The grass so green.
The dam structure didn't fail but it's design and function certainly failed. A dam should never allow the water to back-up to the point where it has to find a way around.
Is the bridge next? What a mess.
Possibly.
Probably. The bridge was built on top of the sediment that is now washing away. You can already see some of the pier foundations getting exposed.
@@plmn93
Trust me, you dont build bridges on sediment
@@Herezjush Well the county said they did. Which is why replacing the bridge was part of their dam removal plan.
That river literally cut itself a new path. The only question now is, how much wider will it cut before it settles down? I feel bad for the ones who lost their home and a large chunk of their property to boot.
This what happens when you get storm after storm after storm after storm in the span of just 4-5 days.
From the looks of the structure, definitely not ready for this Noah moment!
This is a minor river, for those that do not know the area. It normally runs at around only 40-200 cubic ft/second. It ran around the plugged dam at around 30,000 ft/second. In 1965, it ran at around 45,000 ft/second. So, this should tell you that the dam is not a flood control structure. This is why the downstream people have nothing to fear as far as a devastating flood. This is not the same as the Oroville Dam in California in 2017 (during a 20 year 'drought'!!), wherein a massive reservoir of water is stored behind the dam, requiring the evacuation of tens of thousands of people. This dam is 115 years old and was simply built to provide electricity for a few hundred homes. The house that washed away was the only home built for a reason...it was for employee housing during the build. Ditto the store...it was to sell necessities to the laborers working on the dam.
What no one is speaking of, is the 11 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment that had built up behind the dam, making it obsolete. Blue Earth County took over ownership of the dam after the floods of 1965 that damaged the dam beyond its usefulness. In 2002, the county made structural repairs in the amount of $1 million. In 2019, the county paid an engineering consultant to plan the costs of either removing or repairing the dam. It was $15 million to repair and $85 million to remove (which, given 11 million cubic yards of contaminated soil, seems awful cheap).
Anyhow, the dam did not fail. The owners failed. But the county can now blame 'global warming' for the hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental damage done downstream, and simply bulldoze the dam, now.
Luckily, the area is not populated to the extent that the smell and new pathways created by the deposition of sediment will create.
P.S. - The distraction of the bridge pier scouring is meant only to distract from the environmental catastrophe. The piers will be fine with, perhaps, some newly added riprap. They are built on cast-in place pilings with concrete foundations. A short-term situation such as this flooding will not have long-term meaning to the pier's foundations.
Does anyone know if there is an update as of today, Thursday 6/27? I’m hoping the store is still standing but I can’t find any news or footage that shows anything updated from how it looks in this video from Wednesday.
If the flight overhead was a Boeing, there would have been a second crisis by the end of the day.
It makes me think of the Grand Canyon.
Look at all that sediment from 100 years heding down the river And I don't understand why they're not pouring heavy rip Rap in there
Why is the water so black?
blm water
@theboringchannel2027 This is why your lands will continue to crumble before your eyes! 😂
The topsoil is very black in Southern Minnesota.
I think it won't be so hard to knock down the dam now...
ya the 60 mil to remove sediment is not needed anymore river taken care of it for free
You can tell compared to footage from yesterday there really isn't any water going THROUGH the dam anymore - the entire river flow is now going through the breach cut. That'll make it relatively easy once the flow subsides to isolate the dam completely and prepare to demolish it since it won't make sense to try to keep it now. (Remember, the authorities were already considering demolition BEFORE this happened.)
@@marumiyuhime It will be interesting to see if all that "toxic" sediment causes enough problems downriver to have justified that price tag. I kind of doubt it.
@@gordontaylor2815 Yeah removal was the preferred option, except for the cost. This dam has been a white elephant for the county for many decades. Losing money every year on maintenance and repair while no longer serving much practical purpose, but too expensive to remove.
that river has pulled a real shift, put some serious graft in.
Maybe the grand canyon didn't take that long to form after all.
Grand canyon is rock, this dam site is sediment. Big difference.
Why didn't you show any results downstream?
conspiracy
Nothing to see
Greetings from the BIG SKY of Montana. That dam is not going to be easy to fix.
Was that dam built at an angle to the river or did the water push the dam around before it broke through the embankment?
well guess they don't gotta make a decision on the dam... once the water goes down just demolish it
Is the the “Dam Cafe” there on the corner? Next in line for the water flow🤷♀️
Water really does find it's own spot whether we want it to or not it appears.
It would be nice to get a view upstream for a before and after.
14:30 Save the ice.
That bridge was built on top of the sediment that had accumulated behind the dam. With that all getting washed away, I wouldn't be surprised to see that collapse in the next day or two.
The should have driven down to bedrock. But this area is full of sandstone, which is not the strongest substrate.
@@DustonDiekmann Right, that was part of the expense for the dam removal proposal, saying they would have had to rebuild the bridge with piers going down 80 feet further. That's a lot so it's understandable why they didn't. though it looks like they are going to have to now anyway.
What is that little black area?
An outdated dam with known issues causes major erosion causing a house to fall into the river. I wonder how that's all going to work out in court, they don't even have their land anymore.
What a mess! Looks like the river has reclaimed its natural flow!
Why didn't they open the sluices in old dam wall, or blew part of it up so the water could run straight through and safe the bank and houses above
I think I heard somewhere that the gates are clogged with debris.
@@magicthegatherer6903 They cemented shut two of the seven overflow gates.
The eroding area is still have more of straight line shape, my layman theory tells me that the bank still continue to eroding until the whole new water path turn into curve line (like a curve of circle) which river will flow more easily, free of resistance. hopefully the people responsible for the situation are aware of this and prepared.
The people responsible are the ones that let the river fill up with debris.
All thet toxic sludge is making its way down river.
Why would it be toxic? Nothing happened to the water, there's just too much of it
@@Ryan5oh7 The silt behind the dam is filled with toxic chemicals built up there in the past 110 years. That was a big part of the reason the dam wasn't removed.
@@Ryan5oh7 Pesticides, herbicides, and toxic metals.
Where is this? What state please?
Minnesota
Well, they'll have to build a new down. That's eight feet higher and two hundred feet longer
They wanted to demolish the dam anyway, but it was too expensive, so mother nature stepped in and helped out!
When Bruce Lee talked about being like water.... this is what he meant.
SCOURING... The word for the day is "SCOURING"... The Reporters need to go back to Reporting School and learn how to brush up on their Reporting Skills, this will allow them to become the best damn Reporters by a Country mile!!!
where the hell is the new vids its been a full day
Why was no effort made to plug the initial breach or remove the debris from the spill gates...? Lawsuit here it comes.
Have you seen the water moving/the current? All the debris came down river during the storm, it's absolutely not safe for *anyone* to try and remove it until the water level goes down and the river subsides.
@@spiercephotographyseems the water level at the dam is low now. If not now...when?
Sending billions to other countries when we need it here😢.
Quit gaslighting.
That would be great if restaraunt is saved i would immediatly do a speacial burger.,.the cliff hanger double cheese
keep new vids coming
And, just one more point those that don't understand the situation. Farmland tends to follow rivers due to the expansive nature of past floods enjoyed by the land. The floods deposited fertile sediment that translated to great crop growth. With the development of drain tile, farmers found a way to drain the low lying and swampy areas that had previously been unfarmable. Many communities also had the money to install dikes and levees, which halted flooding of fields, and led to more developable, taxable, land development.
So, after decades of draining lowlands and building levees (along with the impervious concrete and blacktop developments), the water that once fell as rain in swamps, replenishing the aquifers, and spreading outwards from the riverbed, slowly migrating into the flow of water- we now have cropland who's drain tile dumps the water immediately into the rivers, and levees constraining the formerly meandering natural flow - with nowhere else for the water to go. This is the situation today - with higher river levels and lower cubic feet per second flow rates that we have.
Bam.
Looks like there is a second house in the trees behind the store?
The family house went sometime last night, the next house is their restaurant, looks like it may go if this keeps up.