A bit sketchy how they skimmed over the effects of the collapse, including killing a lot of stock and washing out the approach to a bridge causing the highway to be closed. To quote a report: 'Waitangi Day, 6 February, 1997 is a day that will remain on the minds of flood warning staff of Environment Canterbury (ECan) probably for the rest of their lives. The partially completed Opuha Dam near Fairlie in South Canterbury failed at about 1.00 am that morning, releasing about 13 million cubic metres of water into the Opuha Riverbed (Figure 1). Fortunately no lives were lost although in the days that followed there were stories of a number of very close escapes: campers scrambling through riverside berm areas with trees crashing around them and farmers in the same situation trying to shift stock. We were actually very fortunate.' 'The failure resulted in the loss of more than 1000 head of stock, many hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to about 25 farms adjacent to the riverbed, $500,000 worth of damage to river pro- tection works in the Opuha and Opihi Riverbeds and a major breach of SH 79.' 'Two groups of people camping in the Opihi riverbed downstream of SH 1 made miraculous escapes through trees and gorse after they were alerted to oncoming floodwaters by the sound of crashing trees. A farmer who noticed the SH 79 approach to the Skipton Bridge over the Opuha River was washed away leaving only the seal bridging the gap, was fortunately able to stop oncoming traffic.' citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.693.5951&rep=rep1&type=pdf
The dam has changed many farms, especially those on lighter soils. Some places that burnt off every summer and didn't really produce much are now green dairy farms....probably not as environmentally friendly as the original vision of highly productive arable farms on that land, but economics says dairying is a better use of the water. On top of that, shares in the dam company are now very valuable (having started off cheap, but with monthly water charges based on shares owned), now farms with water shares are worth way more than farms without water.
I had the pleasure of working for a number of these people and it was a pleasure to work with them as well. The negative that I have to say is how stupid the Minister of Electricity or what ever his portfolio was; yes Max Bradford was a something ending in ICK. No wonder he escaped to Queensland as soon as he got his government cheque!
Awesome. I'd love to check it out. Never heard of it. Wasn't it refreshing to see tradesmen working on the job in jeans, jerseys, tee shirts and bush shirts etc instead of that ridiculous high visibility garbage they are forced to wear these days.
i wonder how the it managed when the floods of 2021 came through. imagine making the decision of breaking that dam to let the water out in that 97 flood
Conspicuously failed to mention who was responsible for the major repair costs...just the usual fake smiles and back slapping happy talk by the clowns responsible for the screwup.
Great Video, Fantastic Project, thanks for sharing
A bit sketchy how they skimmed over the effects of the collapse, including killing a lot of stock and washing out the approach to a bridge causing the highway to be closed.
To quote a report:
'Waitangi Day, 6 February, 1997 is a day that will remain on the minds of flood warning staff of Environment Canterbury (ECan) probably for the rest of their lives. The partially completed Opuha Dam near Fairlie in South Canterbury failed at about 1.00 am that morning, releasing about 13 million cubic metres of water into the Opuha Riverbed (Figure 1).
Fortunately no lives were lost although in the days that followed there were stories of a number of very close escapes: campers scrambling through riverside berm areas with trees crashing around them and farmers in the same situation trying to shift stock. We were actually very fortunate.'
'The failure resulted in the loss of more than 1000 head of stock, many hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to about 25 farms adjacent to the riverbed, $500,000 worth of damage to river pro-
tection works in the Opuha and Opihi Riverbeds and a major breach of SH 79.'
'Two groups of people camping in the Opihi riverbed downstream of SH 1 made miraculous escapes through trees and gorse after they were alerted to oncoming floodwaters by the sound of crashing trees. A farmer who noticed the SH 79 approach to the Skipton Bridge over the Opuha River was washed away leaving only the seal bridging the gap, was fortunately able to stop oncoming traffic.'
citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.693.5951&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Crazy not everyone was warned extensively, they knew exactly when it’d start.
I might have to go visit this dam now iv seen it built
Where abouts in nz are ya
@@kenthompson4967 waikato
Flood free,,,be careful, in Australia, our farmers are left with no water, not allowed to use what flows past their farms.
The dam has changed many farms, especially those on lighter soils. Some places that burnt off every summer and didn't really produce much are now green dairy farms....probably not as environmentally friendly as the original vision of highly productive arable farms on that land, but economics says dairying is a better use of the water. On top of that, shares in the dam company are now very valuable (having started off cheap, but with monthly water charges based on shares owned), now farms with water shares are worth way more than farms without water.
Awesome
I had the pleasure of working for a number of these people and it was a pleasure to work with them as well.
The negative that I have to say is how stupid the Minister of Electricity or what ever his portfolio was; yes Max Bradford was a something ending in ICK.
No wonder he escaped to Queensland as soon as he got his government cheque!
Awesome. I'd love to check it out. Never heard of it. Wasn't it refreshing to see tradesmen working on the job in jeans, jerseys, tee shirts and bush shirts etc instead of that ridiculous high visibility garbage they are forced to wear these days.
The 'hi-vis garbage' was made necessary by incompetent/clueless clowns who needlessly killed a lot of people.
Because it's not for their own safety or anything
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb Yeah and now its killing the corporations oh the irony.
Was up there 2 months ago, apparently now she is only 40% full
thank you for share the video
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i wonder how the it managed when the floods of 2021 came through. imagine making the decision of breaking that dam to let the water out in that 97 flood
Mother-nature strikes again. All that work undone in one storm. Man that had to hurt the wallet of those concerned.....
What happened?
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Conspicuously failed to mention who was responsible for the major repair costs...just the usual fake smiles and back slapping happy talk by the clowns responsible for the screwup.
What screw up?
The engineer on this job is so out of his league stick to subdivision bra