When we build infrastructure, we don't do too bad as a technology-using species. We shouldn't wait for a disaster to fix things, but it often seems like that is all we do.
On 19 May 2020 at 17:46 EDT following a heavy rain storm, the earthen embankment of the Edenville Dam failed by way of static liquefaction. (See this excerpt from a video by Practical Engineering on static liquefaction; it is queued up to the relevant portion of the video.) The dam failure released enough water to overtop the Sanford Dam 16 kilometers downstream. While that dam was damaged it did not breach.
After some legal wrangling, bureaucratic finger pointing, and other nonsense, plans were put in place to replace the Edenville Dam, the Sanford Dam, the Smallwood Dam, and the Tobacco River Dam. A couple were damaged, all had been rated as being in very bad shape before the disaster, but politicians don't like to deal with infrastructure. It isn't flashy, and doesn't really help them buy votes from anyone. And so it is all too often replaced or repaired only after a disaster.
It is too complicated to relate the entire history of these dams, but the full video from Practical Engineering, not just the portion highlighted above, isn't a bad place to start.
This is Jordan Mowbray's video Edenville Dam Emergency Spillway Work Rapid Progress- Earthen Embankment - Dam Drone - Dam Collapse. Shows some of the current state of the rebuild of the dam.
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