Iowa Damn Fails from flooding

[1pLUs44]

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/rains-flood-illinois-interstate-endanger-iowa-dam/19567270

I really hope no one is hurt from all of this. My prayers are with the people and their families in the path of this. 

[MiloMorai]

Damn that is too bad the dam failed.

[smoe]

Aint that dam nice.

[dev1ant]

I would think if your house sat somewhere below that dam it wouldn't be so funny.

[grizz441]

I would think if your house sat somewhere below that dam it wouldn't be so funny.

Dam straight.

[Simba]

Best of luck to the inundated, hope the people got to high ground OK.

Meanwhile, the Yangtse and its tributaries are flooding due to the heaviest rainfall for forty years. More than 150 dead, and counting.

What was that about global warming again?

Hmmmmm . . .

[AAJagerX]

They had the warnings out early, and I think everyone got out ok.  Lots of property damage though.

[L0nGb0w]

lake delhi is just an hour or so north of me, know some people personally that got their houses destroyed by this.   

[MORAY37]

Best of luck to the inundated, hope the people got to high ground OK.

Meanwhile, the Yangtse and its tributaries are flooding due to the heaviest rainfall for forty years. More than 150 dead, and counting.

What was that about global warming again?

Hmmmmm . . .

Something about... ummm... increasing rainfall....i forget the specifics though.  meh.

[Dragon]

I would think if your house sat somewhere below that dam it wouldn't be so funny.

Hence the reason my house isn't below a dam, or on a known fault line, or a volcano, or in the normal flight path of tornadoes or hurricanes. 

[Simba]

Nor mine, we're lucky here in Blighty to reside on one of the more stable parts of the planet.

The inhabitants of Cumbria in NW England may not agree though. Last winter, the area was inundated after the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the UK, hundreds of houses were flooded and bridges were swept away. Cumbria has always had the highest rainfall in the country but that was too much - but now, because the regional water company puts profit before service, a hose-pipe ban is in force because there's not enough water in the reservoirs following a dry-ish first half of this year. For some folks, it never rains but it pours . . .

 

[MORAY37]

Nor mine, we're lucky here in Blighty to reside on one of the more stable parts of the planet.

The inhabitants of Cumbria in NW England may not agree though. Last winter, the area was inundated after the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the UK, hundreds of houses were flooded and bridges were swept away. Cumbria has always had the highest rainfall in the country but that was too much - but now, because the regional water company puts profit before service, a hose-pipe ban is in force because there's not enough water in the reservoirs following a dry-ish first half of this year. For some folks, it never rains but it pours . . .

 

Sounds like a storage issue not a supply issue.  It may rain like the devil for 364 days of the year, but if you're storing it in a teakettle, you'll run out of water on day 365. 

Same complaints occur here in Florida, USA.  People complain that the water company is in "profit mode", but they can't water their lawn.  What they don't understand is that there is basically only the Floridan Aquifer under their feet supporting 19 million residents of the state. 

[Spikes]

Are there any more dam questions?

Yeah where can I get some dam bait?!

[Simba]

"Sounds like a storage issue not a supply issue.  It may rain like the devil for 364 days of the year, but if you're storing it in a teakettle, you'll run out of water on day 365."

Or much earlier, if a water company that enjoys a monopoly position prefers large profits for its share-holders instead of maintaining sufficient infrastructure and adequate reservoirs.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[MORAY37]

"Sounds like a storage issue not a supply issue.  It may rain like the devil for 364 days of the year, but if you're storing it in a teakettle, you'll run out of water on day 365."

Or much earlier, if a water company that enjoys a monopoly position prefers large profits for its share-holders instead of maintaining sufficient infrastructure and adequate reservoirs.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

 

That could be very true.  I don't know how it works in the UK for building large scale earthworks projects, but in the US it's an incredibly difficult thing to build a reservoir.  That may be the issue there, I don't have any experience in that.

Plus, there generally has to be a natural feature to "damn" up, and flood.  Your geographic area may not predispose itself to such a project.  Of course it's all conjecture.