When dams failed and wiped out a Washington state town twice in 15 years
After rising water levels threatened to spill over a massive dam in California, nearly 200,000 people were evacuated from towns that might be at risk below it.
The drama is a reminder that nature doesn’t always tolerate human arrangements for its confinement.
There are nearly 1,200 dams (more than half of them privately owned) in Washington state storing at least 3.2 million gallons of water each, according to a 2016 inventory, and the state has seen its fair share of problems at some of those dams.
Here are a few notable dam incidents in Washington state:
Dec. 23, 1918 — About 2 a.m., the town of Edgewick, near modern-day North Bend, was wiped out after floodwaters seeped through glacial debris near the Cedar River dam.
Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/when-a-dam-failed-and-wiped-out-a-washington-state-town-twice-in-15-years/