Dam failure: food for the opposition.

Over 100 years ago, a catastrophic dam failure caused thousands of deaths and wiped out a town. Before the failure:

and after:

And where could this have happened? Who lives near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania? Well, this dam failure occurred just over 2 hours west of Harrisburg, in Johnstown, PA.

source: Johnstown Area Heritage Association Web Site (#)

A little more recently... in 1928, the failure of the St. Francis Dam, near Los Angeles, California, killed hundreds of people. Here are the before and after shots.

Only 200 feet of the center section was left after the flood!

How would you like to live through that situation and see if you can stop a disaster? Try the St. Francis Dam Flood Simulation (#).

source: Educational Technology Department, San Diego State University (#)

Dam failure is one reason that people are opposed to dams. The overall incidence of dam failure is low, but there are a number of other reasons.

On March 11, 1997 the First International Conference of Dam-Affected People was held. How had dams affected them?

Why are people opposed to dams?