A brief History of: The Teton Disaster (Documentary)

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ธ.ค. 2024

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  • @PlainlyDifficult
    @PlainlyDifficult  3 ปีที่แล้ว +142

    Check me out on Twitter twitter.com/Plainly_D
    Fancy some of my merch?
    teespring.com/en-GB/stores/plainly-difficult
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    www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult

    • @grmpEqweer
      @grmpEqweer 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Boise is "Boy-zee" 😋 You're cute. 😁. Also, the Teton mountains (Iirc) were named "Teton" by one h0rny french explorer, who thought they looked like t1t$.

    • @6yjjk
      @6yjjk 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Mate, take it easy with that flicker (11:05). You're gonna give someone an epileptic fit.

    • @cobeer1768
      @cobeer1768 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      Tee-taan.

    • @Adderkleet
      @Adderkleet 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      11:08 - you've got to start using a less aggressive flicker effect. It's an extremely uncomfortable strobe you got going there.

    • @carolinacoreas7716
      @carolinacoreas7716 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Hello! At around like the first 23/24 second mark, the word "financial" switches to "finanical" and I thought it was a funny quirk. It for sure changes back to the correct spelling, I just didn't think I'd catch the spelling error.

  • @TenShine1productions
    @TenShine1productions 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1346

    The fact someone was able to photograph the different stages of the collapse is amazing and really puts more depth to the story

    • @mfaizsyahmi
      @mfaizsyahmi 3 ปีที่แล้ว +239

      when you're fucking up so bad geologists are already placing down cameras to record your fuck-up in real time.

    • @TenShine1productions
      @TenShine1productions 3 ปีที่แล้ว +56

      @@mfaizsyahmi It's as if they knew 🤣

    • @b.w.5828
      @b.w.5828 3 ปีที่แล้ว +84

      If I remember right, there's even a video out there of the exact moment the bulldozer they had been using to try to stop the first leak fell in.

    • @dillonrinehart8319
      @dillonrinehart8319 3 ปีที่แล้ว +78

      The disaster took 2 days to completely unfold. They spend part of the previous day, and the entirety of the night trying to stop the crack from growing any bigger on the face.
      By the time it broke there were multiple local news agencies on scene

    • @jackmehoffe9662
      @jackmehoffe9662 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      There's a whole video moron

  • @cody4783
    @cody4783 3 ปีที่แล้ว +488

    "Two bulldozers were sent down to (try and) fill the leak"
    Logical, as you'd want to do when things start to go awry at a dam. Filling the hole with materia---
    "...at around 11am one of the bulldozers started sliding into the opening"
    Well I'm no expert, but filling a leak with an entire bulldozer definitely falls into what I'd consider "unconventional" means.

    • @grahamfisher5436
      @grahamfisher5436 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      exactly.
      everyone knows
      you use Duck tape.

    • @NotMykl
      @NotMykl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@grahamfisher5436 DUCT tape not duck.

    • @grahamfisher5436
      @grahamfisher5436 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      @@NotMykl I'm from Nottingham.
      everything is DUCK
      me duck

    • @tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772
      @tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@grahamfisher5436 😂😂🤣❤️ There is a company that makes duct tape called Duck. The inside of a roll says 'Duck tape' on it. They also make sealing tape and bubble wrap.

    • @grahamfisher5436
      @grahamfisher5436 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772 hi,
      there is indeed.
      me duck.
      so called.. because like Duck's 🦆
      there Hardy and waterproof
      🤩🤩👍💪🌊🦆🥰

  • @tncorgi92
    @tncorgi92 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2944

    When you're finding caves in the area you're digging for a foundation, it's time to re-evaluate your plans.

    • @KestrelOwens
      @KestrelOwens 3 ปีที่แล้ว +197

      Especially bad when you don't fill all of them because they are 'outside the area of the cut off wall, therefor, don't affect it'

    • @stanislavkostarnov2157
      @stanislavkostarnov2157 3 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      never build a dam on a gate for the damned...

    • @samwise1790
      @samwise1790 3 ปีที่แล้ว +263

      @@KestrelOwens they actually did try to fill them via grout pumping. The problem was the rock NEVER stopped accepting more grout, which means the porosity was way higher and more interconnected than they thought. They pumped grout far exceeding their estimates but eventually just gave up and went ahead with construction. You can still see the grout pumping channels in the north side abutment to this day. I climbed down to drill rock samples and saw them up close.

    • @abrahamlincoln9758
      @abrahamlincoln9758 3 ปีที่แล้ว +104

      That sounds like a big dam problem.

    • @Mehrunes86
      @Mehrunes86 3 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      @@abrahamlincoln9758 You're dam right😂

  • @playgroundchooser
    @playgroundchooser 3 ปีที่แล้ว +305

    In the aviation industry it's called "Get-There-Itis.". It's killed many pilots and passengers.

    • @nenmaster5218
      @nenmaster5218 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I have the hobby to recommend science-channel to those in
      c-sections under science-channels... i mean... its kinda self-explanatory, really...
      Anyway, want some?

    • @ronaldshank7589
      @ronaldshank7589 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Agreed! Any time you're told to "Rush things", it almost never ends up good!

    • @adamgarber9063
      @adamgarber9063 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      We suffer from the same thing in the trucking industry. Many of us are paid per mile, meaning the faster the better, and we're all guilty of it. Safety is often second if thought of at all when our livelyhood relies on keeping a truck going.

    • @chicagonorthcoast
      @chicagonorthcoast 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      The guiding philosophy of the Bureau of Reclamation was to keep on building dams no matter how little needed or justified, no matter how unsuitable the site, and no matter how many warnings there were that the course of action was ill-advised. By 1970, all the good dam sites were already taken and those left were as flawed as the Teton site.

    • @colinstewart1432
      @colinstewart1432 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yep. Target Fixation.

  • @cattibingo
    @cattibingo 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2633

    Might want to listen to the _actual geologists_ when they say an area is _geologically_ unstable

    • @jaymata1218
      @jaymata1218 3 ปีที่แล้ว +231

      here in the States, we only listen to the ones that tell us what we wanna hear

    • @AndrooUK
      @AndrooUK 3 ปีที่แล้ว +105

      Haha. Yes, like we listen to actual climatologists and virologists when it comes to anthropogenic climate change that is causing no problems (and keeps changing every decade or two) and the super deadly yet surprisingly asymptomatic coronavirus?
      Politics comes before actual science and data. Scientists these days are only there to support the political agenda, they have nothing to do with the pursuit of knowledge and reality.

    • @PercivalBlakeney
      @PercivalBlakeney 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @Jay Mata
      It has been commented upon.
      😉

    • @cheremichael367
      @cheremichael367 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Spot on 👍👍

    • @justarandomname420
      @justarandomname420 3 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      But, what if they're wrong? Best to build a dam just to make sure! That's hiw science is done. Test all theories.

  • @RoshDroz
    @RoshDroz 3 ปีที่แล้ว +484

    I just learned a new term, "completion bias". I'm a dentist and find myself doing this quite often when doing a root canal and discovering a crack or perforated canal near the end of a 1.5-2hr appt. I do my best to catch myself and be honest about it but it's hard telling the patient the tooth is a goner after they just endured a very uncomfortable root canal.

    • @MongooseTacticool
      @MongooseTacticool 3 ปีที่แล้ว +51

      "Get-there-itis" I've heard it called in Aviation. Paul Bartorelli said it on the AvWeb channel.

    • @adamfox1669
      @adamfox1669 3 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      This is why people dont like expensive dentists

    • @Liv-si6qu
      @Liv-si6qu 3 ปีที่แล้ว +53

      @@adamfox1669 it's not like he's purposely waiting til the end to find the crack

    • @ZGryphon
      @ZGryphon 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@MongooseTacticool And its astronautical brother, "go fever."

    • @YohanathanD
      @YohanathanD 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @Liv no but he's implying he's went on ahead with the procedure after finding such

  • @KyIieMinogue
    @KyIieMinogue 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1071

    I’m obsessed with this dam failure series.

    • @baseballlava
      @baseballlava 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Same.

    • @nopenope8418
      @nopenope8418 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Since i live in Quebec Canada and nearly all our electricity comes from hydro power, i must just watch these, so interesting!

    • @stankythecat6735
      @stankythecat6735 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Me to … is it weird ?

    • @grmpEqweer
      @grmpEqweer 3 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Oh dam.

    • @michaelimbesi2314
      @michaelimbesi2314 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Dam failures are a great example of the dangers of not being safety focused

  • @sapphiregamgee4773
    @sapphiregamgee4773 2 ปีที่แล้ว +49

    The dam pretty much collapsed as it was being finished. My dad was one of the first to know it was happening because he worked at Radio Shack at the time, and he and some other employees liked to listen in on police radios during their breaks. Because of this, he got a real-time, blow-by-blow account of the collapse before the local news, or nearly anyone else. He called my grandpa, who didn't believe it at first, until the later radio and TV broadcast. Luckily, Idahoans are swift to organize in an emergency. The towns further down the Teton River had time to evacuate, while volunteers sandbagged and cut bridges to let the flood through. Both my parents lived with their families in Idaho Falls (40+ miles downstream), and these measures largely worked. They also helped with cleanup after the fact.

  • @vomeronasal
    @vomeronasal 3 ปีที่แล้ว +577

    But, but...where does it rate on The Plainly Difficult Patented Disaster Scale?!

    • @lucidityZ
      @lucidityZ 3 ปีที่แล้ว +95

      And where is that on a map?

    • @WeldinMike27
      @WeldinMike27 3 ปีที่แล้ว +55

      His cat battered it under the fridge.

    • @cattibingo
      @cattibingo 3 ปีที่แล้ว +80

      @@lucidityZ "around here" *shows map of entire United States

    • @RicardoCristofRemmertFontes
      @RicardoCristofRemmertFontes 3 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Damn! Yes, this is painfully missing!

    • @skachor
      @skachor 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      This video now ranks at 10

  • @aidanfarnan4683
    @aidanfarnan4683 3 ปีที่แล้ว +212

    Completion Bias: When the Sunk Cost Fallacy becomes a Sunk Town Fallacy.

    • @seand.g423
      @seand.g423 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Which inevitably becomes a lovely little game of "blame the victims/refugees"...

    • @christibritton1436
      @christibritton1436 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      reminds me of story about a fellow who lost a quarter down an outhouse hole. He kept throwing $5 & $10 bills in until it became worth jumpin' in after the money.

    • @TheMouseAvenger
      @TheMouseAvenger 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Gotta admit, I would fall for the Completion Bias often. Because I believe in completing a goal or project or whatever, no matter what! ^_^

    • @KenFullman
      @KenFullman 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Completion Bias: Sometimes it's just so hard to pull out.

    • @airplanemaniacgaming7877
      @airplanemaniacgaming7877 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@KenFullman AKA: "whoops, looks like you're pregnant!" syndrome

  • @sarjim4381
    @sarjim4381 3 ปีที่แล้ว +361

    I was involved in dam safety work for almost 20 years. Completion bias is probably the biggest enemy of good engineering that exists, but this is especially true for dams. There aren't many locations that meet the geologic, geographic, and financial conditions needed to construct a dam, so once a location is chosen and work started, it's nearly impossible to stop it. The concept of "sunk funds", the amount already expended before a problem is found, just drives a project forward so the whole thing doesn't turn into a complete waste. Even more unfortunate is the ones who know the true dangers of a dam are project engineers who have the least amount of input into the safety and suitability of a project. Trust me, there are more disasters out there ready to happen when all the right conditions are met.

    • @stanislavkostarnov2157
      @stanislavkostarnov2157 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      The problem is that "sunk funds" are not just a concept but an actual thing (at least, whenever those who are doing the construction do not able to print money, in the latter case it's more complicated)
      the only way around sunk funds is to make sure all problems are found BEFORE any significant money is spent... under an economy, no one is going to stop doing something already paid for on a (even significant) chance something might happen, that is, unless there is a 100% compensation/insurance (with no effect on premiums).... otherwise, we just have to accept such mishaps as the cost of business.

    • @StoneInMySandal
      @StoneInMySandal ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jensnobel5843Are you seriously advocating against earthen dams?

    • @TheAbyssalStorm
      @TheAbyssalStorm ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jensnobel5843We all know that they aren’t going to stop making earthen dams. If a large company sees an opportunity to make a quick profit, they will usually grab it with both hands, with little regard for safety. Though the root of a lot of their problems when it comes to a lack of safety in a lot of these construction project that lead to disaster is the shortsightedness of the companies, who can’t see past the immediate profit that they can get (at least that’s what I can infer from all of these industrial disasters).

    • @thatlittlevoice6354
      @thatlittlevoice6354 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      When "all the right conditions are met", anything can turn into a disaster.

    • @wiseauserious8750
      @wiseauserious8750 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Good assertation. We humans do love our fallacies

  • @vaszgul736
    @vaszgul736 3 ปีที่แล้ว +92

    Just another case of "you were so busy trying to see if you could, you didn't stop to think if you should"

    • @YeahNo
      @YeahNo 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      It’s the American waaaaayyy.

    • @1cont
      @1cont 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Jurassic Park all over again

    • @seand.g423
      @seand.g423 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@YeahNo yeah, well, that's what happens when all you got is Right and Center-Right-called-Left...

    • @OneSon744
      @OneSon744 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ya like the A.I.

  • @Chainsaw-ASMR
    @Chainsaw-ASMR 3 ปีที่แล้ว +564

    Blaming "geologic factors" for their failure to choose a suitable site...WOW!
    If the geology is bad, then choose another site...you can't blame the planet.
    That's like building a highway up to a cliff-edge, then blaming the surface for dropping too fast.

    • @LynxSnowCat
      @LynxSnowCat 3 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      It's almost bewildering to look at the dam site (on Google maps) now and see the scale at which the rock splintered.
      www.google.com/maps/@43.9093416,-111.5380633,238a,35y,301.2h,50.3t/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
      I remember being led to the base of an overgrown spillway (w/ no dam or other body of water to drain) in the Great Lakes region as a child, and not understanding _how_ there was a series of bus-sized stone --boulders-- crude-blocks in the river leading up to it. (and why there was a spillway with no body of water connected to it) That a dam blew apart and carried pieces of its a stone wall is one of the many possible explanations our guide was unwilling to give us.

    • @Tindometari
      @Tindometari 3 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      It's kind of like those guys in the Mississippi oilfield who decided to test for a flammable atmosphere in a tank *by inserting a lit torch into the tank*. BOOOOOOM!
      "Yep, we got a flammable atmosphere. Hey, wait a minute ... that's funny, do you smell all that sulfur too? And where does this road lead?"

    • @ryrin6091
      @ryrin6091 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      But they didn't "blame the planet". The geological factors was mentioned by the independent investigation who also mentioned in the same paragraph the human error. Taken together their statement is essentially "Due to the human error that took place, these geological factors is why the dam collapsed".

    • @scout360pyroz
      @scout360pyroz 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@LynxSnowCat depending on how old they are it could be from natural ice dams from the ice ages. Washington has potholes the size of large houses and wave patterns carved into the land on an unbelievable scale from biblical level floods at unbelievable velocities from just that.

    • @QueenSunstar
      @QueenSunstar 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@scout360pyroz The Missoula Lake floods to be precise.

  • @b.w.5828
    @b.w.5828 3 ปีที่แล้ว +37

    Thank you for covering this! I'm always surprised by how little-known this disaster seems to be outside of Idaho itself. I grew up in the area that was flooded in this disaster and have been down to see the remnants of the dam. My mom was a young teen when it happened. She was out with her mother when they heard the news. They had to call her brother who was stuck at home and tell him to get everything important off the ground and find somewhere high up to wait. Luckily a hill diverted water from their home, otherwise it would have been flooded. I don't think most people understood how deep the water would get in some areas. Between my parents, we had a photo album of images post-flood, including some aerial shots taken from a helicopter. Some of the most notable ones are a round silo sitting in the middle of the road, houses moved, almost intact, completely off their foundation, and dead cattle hanging off power lines. Roads that just vanish, insane amounts of mud and gunk. Some of the buildings shown on main street in Rexburg are still standing today.

    • @ruthmeow4262
      @ruthmeow4262 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Exactly. I was just a little scrub in Idaho Falls when this happened. I remember my parents packing up me and the siblings and heading to a cousins house on a hill. Downtown was flooded. Just glad it wasn't the Palisades Dam.

    • @deplorableneanderthal1265
      @deplorableneanderthal1265 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      I was in my early 20's when this happened. No one can realize how devastating it was to the area unless you were there. Everything from massive top soil loss on the local farms to roads, buildings, railroads, livestock, loss of homes and valuables, and of course, lives. I lost my car and I considered myself extremely lucky compared to my neighbors.

  • @lowkeysoundsystem6174
    @lowkeysoundsystem6174 3 ปีที่แล้ว +549

    What did the fish say when it hit the wall?
    Dam!

  • @darvinclement3250
    @darvinclement3250 3 ปีที่แล้ว +72

    I remember someone telling me some of the dead being some fishermen on a boat downstream. Imagine seeing that wall of water coming at you. That's the stuff nightmares are made of.

    • @ruthmeow4262
      @ruthmeow4262 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      Yes, and fishermen along the bank, one was a friend of one of my high school teachers. They found him in a tree. No way to warn any of them.

    • @stevie-ray2020
      @stevie-ray2020 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      "SURF'S UP!!!"

    • @maddi66515
      @maddi66515 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      This just happened to the husband of my moms friend. He and his son were fishing on the edge of the capilano river, usually there is a warning before they open the dam, this time there wasn’t. He died, and they still haven’t found his son. That poor family. I can’t imagine their last moments.

    • @trevormillar1576
      @trevormillar1576 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      "Ohhhhhhhhhhh SHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!!!"

  • @steve0592
    @steve0592 3 ปีที่แล้ว +431

    I worked with someone who'd worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board
    He told that, if you wanted to build a dam to the same safety standards as a nuclear power station, you'd need at least 10 dams further downstream I'm case the ones upstream failed,

    • @advena996
      @advena996 3 ปีที่แล้ว +60

      That's an interesting point! I'm from northern CA and it was crazy when the (lack of) safety of the Oroville dam became apparent. (There are like 200k people living below the very large Oroville dam, so it was a big deal when heavy rains and poorly maintained spillways lead to major problems as I recall) Thankfully it didn't fail, but it was crazy to see how mismanaged they can be, and we don't really realize how lethal dam failures have the potential to be.

    • @pseudotasuki
      @pseudotasuki 3 ปีที่แล้ว +44

      @@advena996 If the rain hadn't slowed it would've failed. The only output channel that wasn't eroding up towards the dam face was the power plant, and its output was blocked by rocks and soil eroded off the hillside.

    • @Memphian1000
      @Memphian1000 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      At least 3

    • @TotallyNotRedneckYall
      @TotallyNotRedneckYall 3 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      To be fair, a dam failure won't render an area uninhabitable for fifty-thousand years.

    • @pseudotasuki
      @pseudotasuki 3 ปีที่แล้ว +57

      @@TotallyNotRedneckYall Nuclear reactor accidents don't do that, either.

  • @tihspidtherekciltilc5469
    @tihspidtherekciltilc5469 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    If this channel was on TV twenty years ago my TV wouldn't have rapidly disassembled itself while overdosing on lead. Top notch work.

  • @deltab9768
    @deltab9768 3 ปีที่แล้ว +281

    I've actually visited Newdale. There are some buildings that didn't have to be torn down, and you can see marks on them where the water level stained the brickwork. It was definitely 10 or 15 feet high. Scary stuff.

    • @LevenLappi
      @LevenLappi 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I'm worried about how many people have died that time, cause yikes..

    • @deltab9768
      @deltab9768 3 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      @@LevenLappi as they said in the video, 11 people drowned. Many more would have except the dam showed signs of failing long before it actually broke so they were able to evacuate.

    • @tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772
      @tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@deltab9768 Thank goodness! That saved many lives.

    • @sswander
      @sswander ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Newdale did not see any flood water that day. Wilford,sugar city and rexburg all got hit though. I lived through this flood.

    • @Hezkezl
      @Hezkezl ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@sswander My dad's childhood home was in Wilford, and it was completely wiped off the face of the planet :( They were really damn lucky to make it out of the area in time.

  • @carolineflansburg633
    @carolineflansburg633 3 ปีที่แล้ว +41

    I'm from Teton, ID, the closest city to Newdale. Ironically, we were missed by the flood, since we were at a higher elevation. Wilford, our neighboring city to the west, was completely wiped away. A part of the dam rests in my grandparents' backyard, about 4 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

    • @pacodave4885
      @pacodave4885 ปีที่แล้ว

      Luckily the population is so low there less than a dozen people died

    • @Hezkezl
      @Hezkezl ปีที่แล้ว

      calling Wilford a city is being incredibly generous, lol. More of a community across a widespread area than any actual organized "city"... though maybe it was different before the flood, I was born and raised there and never once heard anybody call my area a city.

    • @carolineflansburg633
      @carolineflansburg633 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@HezkezlI'm too young to know what it was like before the flood, but from what people could tell me, it used to be about the size of Teton. Not sure why I called any of these towns "cities" though. It was two years ago.

  • @peekaloo12
    @peekaloo12 3 ปีที่แล้ว +305

    I'm curious, have you ever considered covering the Jefferson Salt Mines collapse? Made the Mississippi river flow backwards.

    • @uselessDM
      @uselessDM 3 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      That's a pretty interesting one as far as the consequences of the accident go. Considering it also turned the lake into a saltwater lake from what I remember.

    • @darrylhaynes9208
      @darrylhaynes9208 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      When donald had taco Tuesdays at the white house the Potomac river flowed backwards on Wednesday and was turned to saltwater.

    • @seneca983
      @seneca983 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      "Made the Mississippi river flow backwards."
      I thought it was the Delcambre Canal. Or is that a part of the Mississippi river?

    • @peekaloo12
      @peekaloo12 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@seneca983 you might be right. Honestly, it's been so long since I read about it, and a lot of what I heard was from people who were there, so there's a solid chance that there was exaggeration/misinformation lol

    • @Tindometari
      @Tindometari 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Wasn't the Mississippi, but a canal connecting the lake to the sea. (You may have had a memory short-circuit to the 1811 New Madrid quakes, which apparently *did* cause part of the Mississippi to reverse flow for a short time into the newly-created Reelfoot Lake.)

  • @CTRmotherheckrs
    @CTRmotherheckrs 3 ปีที่แล้ว +29

    Ayeeee my mom lived through this! She remembers my grandpa being stuck in a tree for about 7 hours until they got to him.. lots of damage was done on this bad boy lol

  • @caitlinriley2035
    @caitlinriley2035 3 ปีที่แล้ว +297

    Plainly difficult needs his own netflix series!! The way he makes it more fun than boring like most channels! Been a follower for 3 year and he never gets boring!!

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  3 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      Thank you!

    • @VashGames
      @VashGames 3 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Yes, he does. Watching him feels like watching those old National Geographic investigation pieces in a smaller scale.

    • @UraTrowelie
      @UraTrowelie 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Completely different style but also very good channel is Fascinating Horror.

    • @thejudgmentalcat
      @thejudgmentalcat 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      But not Netflix...Plainly shouldn't have to rub shoulders with the likes of "Plandemic" and "Tiger King"

    • @cmotdibbler4454
      @cmotdibbler4454 3 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      The problem with netflix is they would replace John with some shitty flavour of the month actor and instead of having facts they would have drama.

  • @AsmodeusMictian
    @AsmodeusMictian 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    It's the random comments on the illustrations that get me literally every time.
    Thanks for another great vid, sir!

  • @kingfisher9553
    @kingfisher9553 3 ปีที่แล้ว +291

    I lived three miles downstream from this dam when it failed. We fled (high speed driving toward Idaho Falls) but turned out the water jumped the channel before it got to our town of Newdale and missed the town. Took out farmland all around, stripped it down to moonrock, took out homes of many of our friends in Sugar City and Rexburg, and one friend committed suicide after he had been forced to relocate when he realized his home in Rexburg could not be restored. He just never came back from that loss.

    • @n.l.vannstallings4664
      @n.l.vannstallings4664 2 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      This is very sad. The whole thing just absolutely breaks my heart

    • @andybaldman
      @andybaldman 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Suicide is hard to come back from.

    • @tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772
      @tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@andybaldman True, but what a sad story. Unfortunately lessons are learned only after fatalities happen with time of use of the project.

    • @nigelft
      @nigelft 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@tuxitalk4-tuxipolitixpage772
      Hence the saying that Safety documentation, and regulations, are written in blood, as it frequently takes severe injuries, and even deaths, to push forward necessary changes ....

    • @kathrynpupos9103
      @kathrynpupos9103 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      My Uncle, Aunt and 2 cousins lived outside of Rexburg. They had their basement flooded from this.

  • @Joeofthemasks
    @Joeofthemasks 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    I lived for 17 years in Parker, Idaho, a small town just north of Rexburg, and heard tons of stories from the old farmer's about this tragedy. There is even a museum in Rexburg. One of the things the older folks talked about, is that the farmer community in the area had the searching done and already started on clean up before the feds even got there

  • @thejudgmentalcat
    @thejudgmentalcat 3 ปีที่แล้ว +395

    "Wanted: Dam Engineer"
    Me: oh, that's cu--
    "Dead or Alive"

    • @LucasM987
      @LucasM987 3 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      But it says damn engineer, not dam. I think the person was just desperate for an engineer to fix something after the flood.

    • @rickhobson3211
      @rickhobson3211 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Welcome to Idaho. :P

    • @Zizoor
      @Zizoor 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      @@LucasM987 or it was a pun, as "dam" and "damn" sounds the exact same in Idaho accents, and the -damn- *dam* engineer ruined their house and property.

    • @Wildstar40
      @Wildstar40 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      That sign would have seemed more serious if there was a $100,000.00 bounty reward written on it.

    • @b.a.d.2086
      @b.a.d.2086 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@Wildstar40 In effect there was. People were furious, thousands of animals died and were floating. Today the bills would have been much higher.

  • @ro4eva
    @ro4eva 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    *THANK YOU, Plainly Difficult, for covering these lesser known historical disasters! I am grateful to have you as a teacher! God bless!*

  • @sapphirewine7470
    @sapphirewine7470 3 ปีที่แล้ว +56

    im really enjoying peoples signatures above their names when it comes up, adds something personal to it

    • @hamletksquid2702
      @hamletksquid2702 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Where does that happen? I'm watching on TH-cam, and I don't see anything like that.

    • @Cool-Tina
      @Cool-Tina 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      15:46 I believe

    • @sapphirewine7470
      @sapphirewine7470 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@hamletksquid2702 was referring to 8:32

    • @hamletksquid2702
      @hamletksquid2702 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@sapphirewine7470 - I get it now. I thought you were talking about TH-cam comments. I'm constantly seeing little squares that I assume are emojis on some platform, and I thought maybe they'd added some other new feature that doesn't work for me.

  • @jdguevara93
    @jdguevara93 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    As someone from Boise it gives me a chuckle hearing it pronounced like Noise. Usually locals will have a fit if they hear Boy-zee vs Boy-see (the latter being the more commonly accepted pronounciation). That aside, glad to have stumbled on this channel. Super fascinating content 🙂

  • @sicknboredoof9814
    @sicknboredoof9814 3 ปีที่แล้ว +82

    My grandmother was effected by this living in Rexburg, hearing her stories about it when I was younger almost seemed unreal.

    • @FunSizeSpamberguesa
      @FunSizeSpamberguesa 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      I have family in Rexburg that were effected by this, too. My great-grandmother was living with one of my great-aunts, and because she'd already had a heart attack, great-aunt and uncle didn't want to tell her there was actually an evacuation -- I can't remember what they did tell her, but she tried to insist on putting on her makeup and doing her hair before she'd go anywhere. She didn't appreciate being hurried along, but they got her into the car somehow. Their house got flooded with 4 feet of water, but my great-uncle was a mason and had built it out of stone, so it was still in one piece. (Unlike the poor person who rebuilt his in the shape of a boat...I wonder if it's still there.)

    • @b.w.5828
      @b.w.5828 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@FunSizeSpamberguesa As of last summer the boat shaped house was still there. I didn't know it was a response to the flood though! Thanks for that!

    • @sissyk6802
      @sissyk6802 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@FunSizeSpamberguesa It is.

  • @monicacall7532
    @monicacall7532 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    I remember when this fiasco/disaster happened. My family lives in Utah about 3.5 hours south of where the dam failed. All able bodied volunteers aged 12 and older were called up to go help with the cleanup process, and my family went to Sugar City to help. The devastation was terrible. The disgusting smell of the mud is something that I will never forget as long as I live.

  • @congruentcrib
    @congruentcrib 3 ปีที่แล้ว +65

    The hardest thing is, imagine being someone who works somewhere like this, and you ask “hey isn’t that a bad thing” and them be told “oh it’s nothing to be too concerned about”. Or even more annoying, then not telling you that there are other issues that have appeared.

    • @evilempryss
      @evilempryss 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Worse is hjman element after the fact. Like being a local hired on for the job. See a problem. Tell the boss about it. Be reassured it's a good'n. Go home. Watch the dam fail and your whole town be destroyed. Feel guilt for not having (somehow, impossibly) done more.

    • @oron61
      @oron61 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      "It's probably not a problem... probably, but I'm showing a small discrepancy in... well, no, it's well-within acceptable limits..."

  • @ponchoremerize5508
    @ponchoremerize5508 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I love the funraiser for this video. As I suffer from severe OCD. Thank you! Cheers from the U.S.

  • @ke7eha
    @ke7eha 3 ปีที่แล้ว +140

    That is the most interesting pronunciation of Boise I have heard in a while. Locals pronounce it "boy see."
    There is a large park there named after the wife of one the founders of Morrison-Knudsen. The founders actually met while they were working on the construction of the New York canal, one of the major irrigation canals in the Boise area

    • @wowgurl13
      @wowgurl13 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      I heard his pronunciation of Boise and I was like "what???" I had to check for someone else's correction.

    • @ke7eha
      @ke7eha 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@wowgurl13 I know, right? For a second there I thought he may have been talking about another city, but Morrison-Knudsen makes it pretty apparent.

    • @NecromancyForKids
      @NecromancyForKids 3 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      I have only ever heard people pronounce it "Boy Z"

    • @ke7eha
      @ke7eha 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@NecromancyForKids that's the non-local pronunciation. Most in the Treasure Valley uses the see form rather than the zee form.

    • @azflecstower3943
      @azflecstower3943 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ke7eha this

  • @morganosborne9258
    @morganosborne9258 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I remember this disaster. As we all know, many disasters are covered only regionally. Thanks for bringing us a deeper insight into the causes and outcomes.

  • @Jay-ln1co
    @Jay-ln1co 3 ปีที่แล้ว +584

    Also known as "mah momma didn't raise no quitter" bias.

    • @abrahamlincoln9758
      @abrahamlincoln9758 3 ปีที่แล้ว +66

      The Hold My Beer fallacy

    • @uselessDM
      @uselessDM 3 ปีที่แล้ว +67

      "It'll be fine" Theory

    • @cattibingo
      @cattibingo 3 ปีที่แล้ว +67

      The "you want to get paid, right?" fallacy

    • @spacebearcadet746
      @spacebearcadet746 3 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      "I didn't hear no bell"

    • @possiblyrandom6703
      @possiblyrandom6703 3 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      "You can't stop now bro" effect

  • @natecus4926
    @natecus4926 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Shout out from Fremont county, thank you for covering this disaster that most have never heard of

  • @spider0804
    @spider0804 3 ปีที่แล้ว +267

    Opponents: Yo you built the dam on a cave complex, this area is unstable.
    Dam builders: No we didn't, quick fill it in!
    USGS: Hey it is unstable and probably in danger.
    Dam builders: No u.

    • @cris_261
      @cris_261 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Dam builders after the flood: ah, we may have screwed up.
      Opponents: ya think?!

    • @wanderingthewastes6159
      @wanderingthewastes6159 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      I put the blame on the bureau, since it's literally their job to tell if the project is safe, the builders just did the job they had been given explicit permission to do.

  • @themikecranston
    @themikecranston 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I was a kid when the Teton dam broke. My older sister spent weeks helping to muck out houses. I still remember the smell of the muddy clothes when she'd come home to wash up every couple of days. I was fascinated with it and have visited the site many times. Great video!

  • @cameronjenkins6748
    @cameronjenkins6748 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    I go to school in Rexburg and I've visited the dam site a few times. It is mind-boggling to walk next to what's left of the dam and imagine just how terrifying it would have been when the entire dam gave way.

  • @MissBeeBonnet
    @MissBeeBonnet 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I went to college in Rexburg, and heard a lot about this experience from survivors... But I never knew the whole story of the dam itself! I had no idea there were so many warning signs... so glad they were at least able to get evacuation underway so quickly!

  • @Clancyfan004
    @Clancyfan004 3 ปีที่แล้ว +28

    Can you do the Minneapolis i-35 bridge collapse. I was there when it happened but not on it. Would love a technical accident report in your format. Your explanations are exceptional. Always enjoy them.

    • @DigitalAlmond
      @DigitalAlmond 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      Really really simple EIL5: truss Bridges have fairly little to no redundancy. During routine maintenance a crack in a gusset plate (a connection between two truss members) was missed. It continued to be ignored until the plate - and thus the bridge - failed.

  • @gabbyn978
    @gabbyn978 3 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    When you mentioned that failures might be caused because of financial reasons, I had to think of the Wei Guan Golden Dragon building in Tainan that collapsed, because of an earthquake on February 6th, 2016 in Taiwan, and - concrete pillars that had been 'reinforced' with depleted oil and paint canisters.

  • @s.v.berezin1562
    @s.v.berezin1562 3 ปีที่แล้ว +30

    It's not easy to make 2D images illustrate the dam well, but you have done a splendid job! Great work, as always!

  • @pamreid7631
    @pamreid7631 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    When I was 14, we were flying to Idaho. The pilot announced that the Teton Dam was collapsing below us. I will never forget the brown water pouring from the dam and spreading out fan-like into the area below it.

  • @samwise1790
    @samwise1790 3 ปีที่แล้ว +25

    I'll just correct a couple things, since I'm a geologist and I've been there and literally drilled rock samples on the northern and southern sides of the dam abutments.
    The rock present there is not rhyolite, that implies either a composition (high silica, which it is) or rhyolite as a lava, which it isn't. What is present there are 2 members of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, a welded pyroclastic deposit from the yellowstone hotspot. Tuffs (or ignimbrites) are usually inherently very porous because of vesicles and gas escape structures which form during their emplacement and cooling. The tuff was emplaced hot and stayed hot for quite a while, allowing for extensive cooling joints to form which can be seen at the site very easily.
    Basalt is only present as a thin cap in the region, and I'm not sure I recall seeing any in the immediate area of the abutment.
    I'm quite interested in both engineering geology and volcanic rocks so my research trip there was quite a personal treat.

    • @madeliner1682
      @madeliner1682 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I don't 100% understand what you're saying, but I appreciate it nonetheless

    • @renepassa1969
      @renepassa1969 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Your comment should be pinned.

    • @Gail1Marie
      @Gail1Marie 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Excellent explanation. One of the advantages of these channels is that they allow us to input from genuine experts like you. Much appreciated.

  • @robbiebrownvox
    @robbiebrownvox 3 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    "Bureau of Reclamation" sounds much more ominous than it should, without context

  • @nocturnalicon12
    @nocturnalicon12 3 ปีที่แล้ว +109

    As a local of the Boise area…. It’s called Boi-seeeee!

    • @RallyRallyRally
      @RallyRallyRally 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      I shall now always pronounce this wrong to annoy you

    • @RadioactiveSherbet
      @RadioactiveSherbet 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@RallyRallyRally You shall do the internet proud.

    • @nocturnalicon12
      @nocturnalicon12 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@RallyRallyRally
      Oh, ok.

    • @YeahNo
      @YeahNo 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      I’m Australian and even I know that! SMH.

    • @planescaped
      @planescaped 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      I didn't even hear him say Boise in the video... maybe I thought he was saying something else. :P

  • @deonmurphy6383
    @deonmurphy6383 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I worked for USBR after this event and investigation. One comment I heard was that Teton was done by the “second stringers” as the “first stringers” were focused on another project. That was the Grand Coulee Dam extension and Third Powerplant, which completed in 1974.

  • @Catman2123
    @Catman2123 3 ปีที่แล้ว +46

    I was really not expecting a Jonestown crossover.

    • @TheMouseAvenger
      @TheMouseAvenger 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Me, neither! XD (I'm bloody obsessed with that story!)

  • @craighatch3221
    @craighatch3221 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I live here in Rexburg Idaho, I was 10 years old when it happened. I remember it like it was yesterday. Thank for the video, you did a good job.👍

  • @anndykeman6409
    @anndykeman6409 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    I love your videos. I have learned so much from them. I think they should be a part of a required course for high school students to raise awareness of these issues and get people talking about what should have been to prevent these disasters. Thank you for your hard work and amazing research.

  • @wdf70
    @wdf70 3 ปีที่แล้ว +72

    So...this dam was basically a giant sand castle?
    What did they expect would happen?

    • @joefox9875
      @joefox9875 3 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      Yes, but they 'compressed' the silt. I mean, they patted it extra hard.

    • @QT5656
      @QT5656 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@joefox9875 👏 👏 👏 😂

    • @Tindometari
      @Tindometari 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      That's what an embankment dam basically is: Sand, rock, rip-rap ... and a hydraulic barrier in the centre, of packed-down clay fines.
      There are plenty of earthen embankment dams, some of which have been standing without problems for well over a century.
      They work fine ... unless water pipes its way across. Then they don't work at all, and they go big and fast.

    • @seand.g423
      @seand.g423 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The whole thing to hold up and work absolutely perfectly "becuz hooman..." obviously...

    • @G274Me
      @G274Me 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      The dam was fine, although the foundation was too shallow. The canyon wall was the issue.

  • @thomasbell7033
    @thomasbell7033 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    As usual, your research and presentation were immaculate. Thanks from Brooklyn.

  • @BellaBarossa
    @BellaBarossa 3 ปีที่แล้ว +31

    I'm sure it's already been pointed out a dozen times, but the basement rock in the area is 'basalt', not 'balsalt'. Basalt is a dark, dense volcanic rock that, yes, can be very porous due to trapped gases creating bubbles, or 'vesicles'.

  • @BReal-10EC
    @BReal-10EC 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I am in construction supply industry, and completion bias is still very much a thing. Was involved in a lawsuit with a large custom house a long time ago where the contractor himself redrew the plan to remove the annoying steel beams from the basement and didn't give me those plans. They had a house that was obviously failing (extreme sagging) at one spot. The trim that was down that hallway perfectly matched the dip in the floor with zero no cracks even in the paint. That meant when they were finishing the house the dip was already there and they ignored it to get it done. EDIT- the home owner had another contractor brace up under this point shortly after completion to keep it from continuing to come down.

  • @johnchedsey1306
    @johnchedsey1306 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I visited the site of the dam a few years ago. It's a very surreal scene as the center of the dam still stands, but you can see the layers of material used to build it. And knowing that once upon a time people died because of this dam failure is quite chilling.

  • @GilliganFan6467
    @GilliganFan6467 3 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    My mother is, indirectly, a survivor of this. A series of events prevented her, her siblings, and my grandfather from being directly beneath the dam fishing when it failed.

    • @pictsidhe6471
      @pictsidhe6471 ปีที่แล้ว

      Lots of panicked workers telling them to run like hell?

    • @GilliganFan6467
      @GilliganFan6467 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@pictsidhe6471 nope. Circumstance preventing a fishing trip from happening. They would have been directly below the dam if something didn’t interfere.

  • @ScolioticTrombone
    @ScolioticTrombone 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    As someone who lives in the Teton area, I'm really glad you made this video :)

  • @UraTrowelie
    @UraTrowelie 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Your channel is like if Walt Disney did disaster stories. The theme music, the light heartedness. Good stuff.

  • @annohalloran6020
    @annohalloran6020 ปีที่แล้ว

    The channel is better every week. It started great and gets better. Much education and dry humor on offer. And the weather reports are enjoyable.

  • @Shhimhiding
    @Shhimhiding 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    You mentioned the Jim Jones incident... you should absolutely do episodes over cult incidents. The way you structure videos is fantastic listening material.

  • @jackalopejane2021
    @jackalopejane2021 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Other than continually mispronouncing “Teton,” this was an informative and thorough analysis of the failure. Having had only a tangential relationship with this event I greatly appreciate the time and detail of your presentation.Thank you

  • @KertaDrake
    @KertaDrake 3 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    The sunk cost fallacy mixed with large engineering projects never ends well...

  • @chrisnorman1183
    @chrisnorman1183 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I Have really been enjoying your content and style for the past 6-7months. Just wanted to say a huge thank you for your effort and hope you keep enjoying making these video's as I know I'll enjoy lapping them up :) Thanks you Mr P. Difficult.

  • @feistyfrog6949
    @feistyfrog6949 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    My town is right underneath a dam, in a valley. A couple years back, one of the spillways stopped working, and they resorted to using a spillway that hadn't been used since the 70s. It was just a total disaster. The kicker is that this dam has had many checkups, and issues were brought up, but ignored. It was structurally compromised. 10s of thousands of people were displaced thinking that their homes were going to get flooded.

  • @hellocloverkitty
    @hellocloverkitty 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you for raising money and awareness of OCD! I even checked out the foundation and found a support group I might join!

  • @36736fps
    @36736fps 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Completion bias was an obvious factor in my 40 year engineering career which included design and construction of nuclear power plants. It is also a factor causing projects like military weapon systems to be dragged out well after it becomes obvious that the system is too expensive, or outdated, or won't work. Completion bias also sometimes has deadly consequences over a very short time scale; for example the Challenger disaster where the pressure to launch today ignored the danger that day, and the Chernobyl catastrophe where the pressure to conduct a delayed test ignored the danger introduced by the delay.

  • @jimrossi7708
    @jimrossi7708 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This was by far the best explanation I have heard on what happened because at this time I was just getting settled into my new home in Northern Maine, 🇺🇸 , keep up the great work and have found all your you-tube works really interesting and well done 👍🏼 !!

  • @trulyinfamous
    @trulyinfamous 3 ปีที่แล้ว +98

    People sure do love that sunken cost fallacy, don't they? A lot of disasters can be explained by that.

    • @abrahamlincoln9758
      @abrahamlincoln9758 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      "A+B+C=D
      If D is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
      "What car company did you say you work for?"
      "A MAJOR one."

    • @recklessroges
      @recklessroges 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I think the sunken cost fallacy explains many relationships.

    • @WobblesandBean
      @WobblesandBean 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Hi Wilford

    • @greenanubis
      @greenanubis 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      "Failure is not an option." Confidence, eh?

    • @PercivalBlakeney
      @PercivalBlakeney 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@abrahamlincoln9758
      You said that you would say that, Sir!

  • @gagemosley8365
    @gagemosley8365 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I for one appreciate a damn disaster explanation video any day of the week. Keep em coming buddy, thanks for all your hard work

  • @EATSLEEPDRIVE2002
    @EATSLEEPDRIVE2002 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    awesome video as always, my man! Here’s another topic that you might enjoy doing a video on: the lake Peigneur salt mine collapse in Louisiana in 1980. They were drilling for oil in a lake, and accidentally drilled into a salt mine. And it had the effect of pulling the drain plug in a bathtub

  • @arnepianocanada
    @arnepianocanada 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Congratulations. Your matter-of-fact presentation lets the facts speak, and - in the absence of over-dramatic voice work or turgid musical backing - allows us to feel our own emotional reactions.

  • @rpeterson9182
    @rpeterson9182 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    My Uncle and Aunt lived in Rexburg, ID when this happened. They spent that night slogging through waist high flood waters getting elderly people out of their homes to higher ground. There’s a memorial at the university in Rexburg to this disaster. 🥺

  • @mikki3740
    @mikki3740 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    These videos are so well-researched! Ok at this point in history, whenever a a project like this is built, there literally needs to be a governmental contract that states "If this results in loss of life, these people will be held responsible. Sign here." And let them chew on that before they move forward. It's insane to that these incompetent, over-confident men get treated like boys and skate away with a slap on the wrist time and time again.

  • @sirarietichee7260
    @sirarietichee7260 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I am shocked beyond beleif that they allowed the dam's structure to be compacted so loosely. I was a Soils/Earthworks tester for a 3rd party Special Inspections company for a few years and the industry standard for nearly every type of earthwork is 95% compaction. Even greenspaces in parking lots and storefronts have to be at least 90% compaction. So when you said they had a mixed-grain fill for the Zone 1 core I already had question marks floating above my head, especially when you said that the Department thought it would be impervious to water which is not true and is laughable, but only 70% compaction for Zone 2 is just insane by modern standards.

  • @FenianAn1mal
    @FenianAn1mal 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    All these dam failure vids keep giving me ptsd. I was once a guard at San Vincente dam in San diego. I worked graveyard shift and every once in awhile a fault in the system would set the alarm siren of the dam off for no reason. Regardless to say whenever it happened i wished I was wearing brown pants. Fascinating vidya as always, keep up the good work.

  • @christiangibbs8534
    @christiangibbs8534 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This happened a couple of months before my 4th Birthday. I distinctly remember my father taking my brother and I down to the railroad crossing a mile from our home to get a good view of Main street. I couldn't believe that there were so many cars under the water. My brother and were yammering the whole time, but my dad never spoke a word. He just stood there, staring. I can't begin to understand what would have been going through his mind at that time, seeing his home town deserted and buried under 4 feet of water.

  • @lucienthurgood4550
    @lucienthurgood4550 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This is part of my town's history, great to hear this story go beyond the city limits!

    • @aloesecretinc
      @aloesecretinc 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I feel the same.. Rexburg boy here..

  • @TheKetsa
    @TheKetsa 3 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    To think we have 2000 years old Roman dams still standing...

  • @kevinblatter2369
    @kevinblatter2369 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thank you for making this video. I arrived in Idaho Falls a week after the dam failure to work on my uncle's farm for the summer. I have lots of extended family in eastern Idaho and all were affected, either physically or emotionally. But Idahoans are a fiercely independent mindset and prided themselves on recovering and getting back to normal before the Feds even arrived. Each weekend that summer my cousins and I were off to somewhere in the affected area to work on one service project or another. The subject of the flood is still a common topic of conversation among the older generation in cities like Rexburg, Sugar City and Rigby.

  • @bensantos3882
    @bensantos3882 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    It's sad when a dam fails and cause human lose of life / or leaving a huge toxic failure (example of a tailings dam which unleashes Cobalt, Cadium, Mercury, Lead or even Uranium into the ecosystem.

  • @themortimusprime9012
    @themortimusprime9012 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Bro absolutely just love the videos of industrial and damn disasters frustrating and tragic but absolutely fascinating how us as human are so pro to just overlook problems

  • @timhinchcliffe5372
    @timhinchcliffe5372 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Here in Queensland Australia, we have on a number of occasions sort the advice of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for investigations into our own dam issues.
    With the amount of spectacular dam failures in the US, it is no wonder why the yanks would be world leading experts in this field.

  • @fratercontenduntocculta8161
    @fratercontenduntocculta8161 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Your careful research and insight is why I love this channel!

  • @mrwri
    @mrwri 3 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    *looks nervously at the Three Gorges Dam*

    • @scottydu81
      @scottydu81 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      Me silently: break break break break break break…. 🍿😎

  • @mustang_5197
    @mustang_5197 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    man, Idaho has had a good few disasters, I live here and even I've never heard of these! great vid!

  • @TheRiskyBrothers
    @TheRiskyBrothers 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    18:10 That statement can be used to describe almost the entire history of the USBR

  • @stephaniewhite5644
    @stephaniewhite5644 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you for interesting information on your videos. I have watched many. This one especially moved me, but I had no idea it had happened, the dam failure. I was very young at the time.

  • @RodrigoMarinho42
    @RodrigoMarinho42 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Hello. Could you make a episode about the Brumadinho and Mariana mining waste damm failure. Just a sugestion! Like very much your videos

  • @jeremyreber7294
    @jeremyreber7294 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I work with a gentleman who was a project engineer at this job when it failed. Yes , he's over 80 and has been with PKS for 55 years. He said it was an unimaginable experience to witness firsthand. One of the fatalities was a kiewit employee trying to move equipment out of the path. It was a sad deal for all affected.

  • @ajfurnari2448
    @ajfurnari2448 3 ปีที่แล้ว +28

    No matter what your trade, a good secondary goal in life is to never have your name/company/product/structure in a video with the opening music

  • @petrofilmeurope
    @petrofilmeurope 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Well made. It is the combined mistakes of many sources which leads to a catastrophe, or downward spiraling development. Greetings from Oslo

  • @ljn369
    @ljn369 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    There's a museum in Rexburg that has an escape room where you have to warn people about the dam about to fall and then get yourself out before it breaks.

  • @lulabelle5452
    @lulabelle5452 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    It's so interesting hearing about this. I've lived in Idaho Falls in 2017 & now Rexburg 2022. The fact that he mentions a company from Omaha, Nebraska winning the bid made me shocked cuz I met my ex-husband in Lexington, Nebraska. Born & raised the first 19yrs of my life in Fayetteville/Springdale, Arkansas. This was such a good documentary.

  • @embyquinn
    @embyquinn 3 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    I heard the name Leo Ryan and immediately made the connection. Sad that the only thing we remember him for is his murder by the People's Temple...

    • @TheMouseAvenger
      @TheMouseAvenger 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      But at least he perished a hero! *(salutes his spirit)*

  • @tiredandcold8628
    @tiredandcold8628 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    You should do ciba-geigy. It’s in my hometown of toms river new jersey and the site is still there. Both of my girlfriends parents got cancer from this. Also the whole entire junior baseball league as well. Yet, there is no mention of this anywhere on the internet via youtube. I just found your channel and love learning about different disasters that history teachers seam to never cover. Keep up the good work.

    • @philipnasadowski1060
      @philipnasadowski1060 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      For a while, when you filed a civil lawsuit in NJ, the form actually had a checkbox for that facility, and all the lawsuits surrounding it.

  • @arnepianocanada
    @arnepianocanada 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Geological danger signs at Italy's Vajont dam site were *not* missed. Warnings were raised by concerned citizens and even experts - but *the authorities disregarded them.*