Rapidan Dam in Blue Earth County, Minnesota in 'imminent failure condition'

Recent flooding has caused the Blue Earth River to cut around the sides of the Dam with debris accumulating in the dam , Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office has warned the Dam is in "imminent failure condition" status.


News report , Dam failure imminent.

Looks like that house is going to go, and a lot of land has been washed away.

Hope they had enough warning to evacuate.

a reply to: gortex

What will be the devastation caused if it fails please?
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: angelchemuel

It doesn't look like it's a heavily populated area looking at the map and hopefully those in the danger area have already evacuated , time will tell.

I don't know the history, but traditionally, there are log booms located around the body of water to prevent the accumulation of debris so I wonder if this has been used to mitigate damage. Regardless, Mother nature can be tough.

Sad day for the homeowners as insurance doesn't always cover this kind of thing. Sad day for the taxpayers as this will cost a fine mint to replace and repair.

Minnesota gets a lot of rain and a quick search brought this up:

The city of Mankato, Minnesota, reported the river was currently at 28 feet, with the dam built to hold 39.5 feet. Should the dam fail, there could be a surge of river water up to 2 feet.

An Xcel Energy substation at the dam has already been washed away, affecting power for around 600 residents.

The dam was built in 1910 and has been weakened by repeated flooding over the decades. A 2021 report recommended repair or removal, but Blue Earth County said on its website there was no danger to the public.

Residents in the area were told to be prepared for possible evacuation if the dam fails.

www.newsnationnow.com...

MmmHmmm.....MmmmmmHmmmmmmmm...... Isn't that just the way Bureaucracy seems to work these days. Ignore the educated studies and reports. But they sure don't have a problem endorsing fake emergencies.

a reply to: gortex I live not terribly far from blue earth. But I'm pretty sure if that dam breaks it's gonna cause some huge issues.


Peace.

Hopefully the outflow to the sides will be enough to prevent collapse. It will alleviate pressure. Might be enough. Might not. Dangerous situation for sure.

From what I read there is a substation that could be affected but the closest town has not made a decision to enforce mandatory updates. It is supposed to raise the river up to 2 feet but they are 10 feet under peak right now for their levee system in the river.

a reply to: matafuchs


One sub station has already been washed away as noted in my earlier post, if that's what you're referring to. It washed away earlier this a.m. I am not aware of others.

You can see all the metal from the substation on the side there.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Wow. Sorry did not read that in your post.

Lemme' guess..."Climate Change"...right????!!!

Never just natural events, which have happened over thousands of years, but THIS ONE (in particular) ...is "Climate Change!"...ABSO-LUTELY!!!! NO Question about it!!! NONE!!

NEXT!!!

P.S. Algore will be along any minute now, to instruct us on the error of our ways (and how we should pay our life's savings to support his cause via taxes), and shortly behind him will be some Autistic chick, who plays a young boy, but is really a post-teenage girl, to tell us how "ASHAMED" we should be of ourselves!

YOU CARBON MONSTERS!! PAY...or DIE!! (None of it will do any good, but WE WILL be rich...so PAY!!!)

YAY for the future!

Nobody can win.

Just sayin'.

It's kind of a shame none of the infrastructure billions are being used to address old, failing dams and bridges.
But hey! Even in the little towns with only 8,000 people near me are getting round-a-bouts! The 'bug' city of 38,000 now has FIVE round-s-bouts!
I wonder if the money they save from all that electricity those stop lights used justifies the cost. I think insurance companies lobbied for round-a-bouts, cause they've been able to raise a lot of rates for all the fender benders they're having.

The LC Valley is a major hub for supply chain big rigs; they're going to love navigating those round-a-bouts.

There's been a lot of rain in the Upper Midwest recently. Big Sioux river 6 blocks away from me just had a new all time record flow happen on Monday. A railroad bridge collapsed and also the Missouri river is flooding as well.



McCook Lake near that bridge also had a flash flood that had a torrent of water looking for the Missouri.



Drone video of the flood in progress.



And all that water is heading for Omaha and points south currently.

Falls Park in Sioux Falls is extremely high currently.



And one more video.

Wasn't it Abu Dhabi that experienced flash flood last month and they admitted to 'cloud seeding'?
Has there been heavy rains/snow melt..... sorry, not sure of geographical locations ref snow melt...... in the regions getting all this water?
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: angelchemuel

It was Dubai, they didn't admit to cloud seeding so much as it was common knowledge that they had used cloud seeding. Cloud seeding only works in localised conditions, the aim being to use small, already present, clouds. Cloud seeding does not and cannot create a storm and was not a contributing factor in the Dubai floods.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Lemme' guess..."Climate Change"...right????!!!

Never just natural events, which have happened over thousands of years, but THIS ONE (in particular) ...is "Climate Change!"...ABSO-LUTELY!!!! NO Question about it!!! NONE!!

So much drama! You have shoes to match that hand-bag?

From what I have read and listened to, this was entirely down to human error and lack of oversight. They knew the dam was struggling, and the breach was caused by a build up of debris. Seems that multiple opportunities to avoid this happening were missed.

Stupid is as stupid does.

It could well be just about traffic management Nugs.

As pointed out, roundabouts restrict access to different vehicles than traffic lights.

🤷🏽‍♂️a reply to: nugget1

originally posted by: Dalamax
It could well be just about traffic management Nugs.

As pointed out, roundabouts restrict access to different vehicles than traffic lights.

🤷🏽‍♂️a reply to: nugget1

That's what they're saying, but so far traffic at these intersections has been far worse than when there were lights.

The main truck route thru both towns will have a very busy round-a-bout to navigate by the end of summer. I should be fun!

a reply to: BrucellaOrchitis
And how do you know that to be 100% accurate?

How do we know 100% that cloud seeding doesn't affect more than what we think it does?
Seems like it is messing with the natural order of the planet.

originally posted by: chiefsmom
And how do you know that to be 100% accurate?

How do we know 100% that cloud seeding doesn't affect more than what we think it does?
Seems like it is messing with the natural order of the planet.

Understanding the precipitation cycle is a good place to start. Being able to access data from multiple sources, including satellites that are able to precisely track storm formations and developments, doesn't hurt either.

If you are concerned about "messing with the natural order of the planet", cloud seeding generally involves inert particulates and has highly localised as well as limited efficacy. It is no match for nature's own forces. The pollutants produced by the petro-chemical industries, never go away, we, those that created them in the first place, are the only defence that nature has thus far provided against those. The irony.

www.bbc.co.uk...