How Did The Folsom Dam Failure Avoid Flooding The Central Valley? | Massive Engineering Mistakes

[@MikMoen]

I JUST came from an Onion News video made 15 years ago making fun about this inevitably happening. So I searched and found this year old video and the FIRST thing I see, is a woman saying "NO ONE saw this catastrophe coming."

[@RandomGal_]

"this disaster will have been preventable, all of the warning signs are here... now"

[@thelavaman]

lol exactly what i did

[@OzMat]

An epic sound editing fail on this video about a Dam gate fail

[@danlowe8684]

I love how it was made out as a big deal to open the gates at the dam downstream. Only one gate on Folsom was stuck open. What about the next 10 dams in the system? lol.

[@bryan565656]

What?

[@danlowe8684]

@@bryan565656 Dams, such as this this, work as a system. To infer that the operation of a dam upstream from another dam below it, with no communication, to those below it, is simply unheard of. IOW, the drama portrayed was never there.

[@bryan565656]

@@danlowe8684 there’s only one dam below Folsom dam and then it on to the ocean.

[@danlowe8684]

@@bryan565656 Exactly. I was making a point that all dams work together as a system. And to act as if someone drove a car down to the next dam to save the world is silly. It is all automated.

[@bryan565656]

@ I agree, I thought you meant there was 10 dams downstream lol. Well, at least they didn’t say they used the pony express to ride there and inform them 🤣🤪

[@janslavik5284]

I wish there was a way to prevent such tragedy... that didn't require so much funding.

[@chadwolfeschledgelsteinhau9697]

Music to loud drowning out what they saying

[@raopsepol]

The music is not loud enough.

[@Topic_____542]

😂😂😂😂

[@jamescoe4765]

This near disaster was caused by Jimmy Carter stopping construction of the Auburn Dam. Jimmy was a born again environmentalist as a result he teamed up with the Sierra Club that could be accused of almost committing mass murder.

[@timh7156]

Music is too loud. Really hard to understand the commentary.

[@Rushopium]

Bad narrative voice volume overlapped by music

[@cpcattin]

Olympic swimming pools ? How much is that in giraffes ?

[@A.R.C.77]

Smooth operator

[@kingjsolomon]

Needs captions yikes

[@vatodad]

Excuses given for the design error are just pathetic. I am a real engineer. I have heard 3 inches in degrees completed my graduate work at Stan for university and over 200 post graduate credits. I am now retired after working hence a research engineer at the top engineering national laboratory... The person that designed this system was simply INCOMPETENT. Any time you're designing a system we're failure can cause a danger to public health you must accomplish 2 things: This is must be designed with a safety factor of at least 1.5. Second there must be inherent safety mechanisms in case of failure. For this design there should have been relief for the raising mechanism if the stress became too great. Obviously this didn't happen. That is not a "simple mistake". That is the result of ABSOLUTE INCOMPETENCE... And it should have been discovered when the design was reviewed! But, as is all too typical with government projects, the Oversight/supervisory personnel were equally incompetent!

[@danlowe8684]

Great comment. You'll love that the auxiliary spillway added in 2017 has failing gates, as well!! Labelled a 'design flaw', the massive gates are prone to cracking and are scheduled to be replaced, one at a time, between now and 2027. smh. Oh, and they are raising the storage capacity of Folsom Lake by 3.5 feet. Also to be completed by 2027.

[@procatprocat9647]

How did they replace the gates without compromising the function of the dam and the downstream dams? This should have been explained!!

[@la24dogg21]

DUDE I WAS THINKING THE SAME LIKE EVERY COMMENT ON THIS VID is an DARN LAUGHABLE jokkkkeeeeXD

[@MasPaws]

@@la24dogg21 probably when dam levels dropped during the dryer summer months and the risk of storms re-filling it was low so workers could get in there and change it.

[@sean99is]

I actually went rafting down the American River at midnight on the 18th of July the day after the Dam broke. What they didn't say is the lake was at 90% before and went down to under 50% after. It stayed at under 50% for a few years while they fixed it. Then we didn't get much rain and folsom had never been the same.

[@ED-os7nf]

@@sean99is and it seems like they just prefer to keep it low from now on, they don’t risk having it full anymore. as they say, Folsom primarily function is for overflow control and not much as a reservoir… these past days they don’t even let it reach to 50% capacity assuming there will be a lot of water coming from rhe current snow pack

[@rogergiles7094]

The video is very misleading at the end. Only the failed gate was replaced. I am working on a project right now to retrofit and replace the trunion hubs on all of the gates at this dam. The video footing they are showing of the gate replacements is not for the main dam. An auxiallry dam spillway was contructed to the east of the main dam, and the video footage you see is for the installation of the gates for this auxillary spillway.

[@legneil]

No such thing in non corrosive.

[@salmarino3739]

What is up with that accent?