On a cold morning last March, Kenny Angel got a frantic knock on his door. Two workers from a utility company in northern Nebraska had come with a stark warning: Get out of your house.
A dam near Spencer, Neb., in 2013, top, when it was holding back water on the Niobrara River and again in March 2019, after it failed during a flood. State inspectors had given the dam a “fair” rating less than a year earlier.
The Jersey Valley dam was one of two Vernon County dams that failed during heavy rains on Aug. 28, 2018. Water overflowed the spillway and cut a 54-foot section from the 50-year-old earthen structure, which had received millions of dollars in repairs after flooding in 2008.
Floodwaters breached the 40-foot-tall Luckasson dam on Aug. 28, 2018, sweeping about 28,000 cubic yards of rock and soil downstream. The dam, completed in 1963, was designed to control flooding in the Coon Creek watershed.
Dave Phillips cleans out his Coon Valley business on Aug. 29, 2018, after torrential rains sent Coon Creek over its banks and caused several upstream dams to fail. Such events are likely to become more frequent as Wisconsin's climate warms.
More than a foot of rain that fell over western Wisconsin in August 2018 overwhelmed the 56-year-old Luckasson dam and four others like it in Monroe and Vernon counties.
The Jersey Valley dam was one of two Vernon County dams that failed during heavy rains on Aug. 28, 2018. Water overflowed the spillway and cut a 54-foot section from the 50-year-old earthen structure, which had received millions of dollars in repairs after flooding in 2008.
A dam near Spencer, Neb., in 2013, top, when it was holding back water on the Niobrara River and again in March 2019, after it failed during a flood. State inspectors had given the dam a “fair” rating less than a year earlier.
Floodwaters breached the 40-foot-tall Luckasson dam on Aug. 28, 2018, sweeping about 28,000 cubic yards of rock and soil downstream. The dam, completed in 1963, was designed to control flooding in the Coon Creek watershed.
More than a foot of rain that fell over western Wisconsin in August 2018 overwhelmed the 56-year-old Luckasson dam and four others like it in Monroe and Vernon counties.
In this April 2, 2019, file photo, water flows down the Oroville Dam spillway in Oroville, Calif. The state spent $1.1 billion repairing the Lake Oroville spillway, enacted new emergency plan requirements and launched a review of 93 other dams with similar spillways.
Water flows over a spill gate on Lake McQueeney, Oct. 2, 2019, Lake McQueeney, Texas. A judge has issued a 12-month temporary injunction preventing the draining of McQueeney and five other lakes along the Guadalupe River after property owners sued.
Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority's John Moryl walks through the hydroelectric plant at the spill gates on Lake McQueeney, Oct. 2, 2019, in Lake McQueeney, Texas. The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority announced plans to drain a chain of six lakes, including Lake McQueeney.
A vehicle passes over the spillway at Willett Pond on the border of Norwood and Walpole, Mass., Dec. 27, 2018. If the dam were to give way, it could send hundreds of millions of gallons of water into the heart of the Norwood, a Boston suburb of nearly 30,000 people.
Reservoir No. 1, a 180 million-gallon water supply that has been out of service much of the past few decades, sits against the backdrop of the city skyline, Oct. 15, 2019, in Atlanta. The city made repairs and brought it back online in 2017, only to shut it down again after water leaks were noticed near businesses located beneath the dam. Were the dam to catastrophically fail, the water could inundate more than 1,000 single-family homes, dozens of businesses, a railroad and a portion of Interstate 75, according to an emergency action plan.
A team of experts surveys damage to the Luckasson Dam in Monroe County after torrential rains caused the earthen structure to fail on Aug. 28, 2018.
MONROE COUNTY LAND CONSERVATION
The Jersey Valley dam was one of two Vernon County dams that failed during heavy rains on Aug. 28, 2018. Water overflowed the spillway and cut a 54-foot section from the 50-year-old earthen structure, which had received millions of dollars in repairs after flooding in 2008.
VERNON COUNTY
A dam near Spencer, Neb., in 2013, top, when it was holding back water on the Niobrara River and again in March 2019, after it failed during a flood. State inspectors had given the dam a “fair” rating less than a year earlier.
NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Floodwaters breached the 40-foot-tall Luckasson dam on Aug. 28, 2018, sweeping about 28,000 cubic yards of rock and soil downstream. The dam, completed in 1963, was designed to control flooding in the Coon Creek watershed.
MONROE COUNTY LAND CONSERVATION
More than a foot of rain that fell over western Wisconsin in August 2018 overwhelmed the 56-year-old Luckasson dam and four others like it in Monroe and Vernon counties.
MONROE COUNTY LAND CONSERVATION
In this April 2, 2019, file photo, water flows down the Oroville Dam spillway in Oroville, Calif. The state spent $1.1 billion repairing the Lake Oroville spillway, enacted new emergency plan requirements and launched a review of 93 other dams with similar spillways.
Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press
Water spurts through a wooden section of a spill gate on Lake McQueeney in Texas.
Eric Gay, Associated Press
Water flows over a spill gate on Lake McQueeney, Oct. 2, 2019, Lake McQueeney, Texas. A judge has issued a 12-month temporary injunction preventing the draining of McQueeney and five other lakes along the Guadalupe River after property owners sued.
Eric Gay, Associated Press
Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority's John Moryl walks through the hydroelectric plant at the spill gates on Lake McQueeney, Oct. 2, 2019, in Lake McQueeney, Texas. The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority announced plans to drain a chain of six lakes, including Lake McQueeney.
Eric Gay, Associated Press
A vehicle passes over the spillway at Willett Pond on the border of Norwood and Walpole, Mass., Dec. 27, 2018. If the dam were to give way, it could send hundreds of millions of gallons of water into the heart of the Norwood, a Boston suburb of nearly 30,000 people.
Charles Krupa, Associated Press
Reservoir No. 1, a 180 million-gallon water supply that has been out of service much of the past few decades, sits against the backdrop of the city skyline, Oct. 15, 2019, in Atlanta. The city made repairs and brought it back online in 2017, only to shut it down again after water leaks were noticed near businesses located beneath the dam. Were the dam to catastrophically fail, the water could inundate more than 1,000 single-family homes, dozens of businesses, a railroad and a portion of Interstate 75, according to an emergency action plan.
A dam near Spencer, Neb., in 2013, top, when it was holding back water on the Niobrara River and again in March 2019, after it failed during a flood. State inspectors had given the dam a “fair” rating less than a year earlier.
The Jersey Valley dam was one of two Vernon County dams that failed during heavy rains on Aug. 28, 2018. Water overflowed the spillway and cut a 54-foot section from the 50-year-old earthen structure, which had received millions of dollars in repairs after flooding in 2008.
Dave Phillips cleans out his Coon Valley business on Aug. 29, 2018, after torrential rains sent Coon Creek over its banks and caused several upstream dams to fail. Such events are likely to become more frequent as Wisconsin's climate warms.
More than a foot of rain that fell over western Wisconsin in August 2018 overwhelmed the 56-year-old Luckasson dam and four others like it in Monroe and Vernon counties.
Floodwaters breached the 40-foot-tall Luckasson dam on Aug. 28, 2018, sweeping about 28,000 cubic yards of rock and soil downstream. The dam, completed in 1963, was designed to control flooding in the Coon Creek watershed.
