Conowingo Dam badly damaged by Hurricane Agnes?

[cattalexander]

I lived in Perryville, MD when the Agnes floods happened, I was 16 years old then. We were evacuated from town.

My dad, Jim Hamilton, also worked at the dam WITH Oakley. In fact, Oakley gave me organ lessons on his Hammond B3 when I was 14 years old.

My dad still has pictures of the dam. They would shock you. He was there for almost 2 weeks till things were brought under control. I remember the situation very well. My dad can tell you lots more about it.

Oakley was a good man.

[ROBwithaB]

The rectification measures that he describes would be consistent with some sort of structural failure.

Will the measures be sufficient. It looks like we're about to find out.

Let us hope that he was wrong....

[TurboGSR96]

@ROBwithaB guess he was, water level just yesterday came up to 32.41' and the 1972 storm level was 36.8', in 1996 at 34.1' level was recorded according to water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrog­raph.php?wfo=phi&gage=cnwm2&vi­ew=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,­7,8,2,9,15,6&type=2

[Greggbert]

So after a 5.8 earthquake in the DC area this week and what looks to be a category 2 hurricane on the way, how safe would you feel being downstream from the dam ? I guess we'll see what happens. Hope everyone is prepared and stays safe.

[qshrek]

1yd deep x 300yds on the Hoover would equate to roughly 6 inches at worst across the mile on the Conowingo.

I would agree waves overtopped it, but nothing continuous. The railroad North of the dam stayed dry.

This was a wake up call for maintenance for sure. I hope your days are never this eventful.

I got a med disqual from NNPS in '87 with a month left, the went in the MUSE program in the Seabees. Not Nuke, but 2500kW generators, so I'm familiar with the power station side of life

[qshrek]

Gray not agreeing with you/disagreeing with you, but as Jack8265 mentioned correctly, it would go down the railway before it overtopped the dam. I would not disagree some waves went over the top, but a continuos over the top event even 3 foot deep x 1 mile wide is a significant amount of water.

Hoover Dam at its worst flood ever only put 3 feet of water over its overflow wall, 150yds x 2 sides, or 300yds of horizontal surface x 1 yd deep

-continued-

[henryhar]

Im not an expert-I just live near the dam--how could we NEVER have a storm big enough to breach the dam---seems to me it could happen as we cant predict the future---they did have 11 gates open just two weeks ago--one or two more and port deposit would have flooded--good to know though that it will blow at over 111 feet---

[qshrek]

I grew up just downriver of the dam. I do not know how much is the truth, but water never went over the damn. The Corps of Engineers had the dam wired to blow the weir on the North end of the dam if the water got to 111 feet. It takes about 115 to go over.

[jack8265]

I don`t think water could go over the dam anyway as the underpass is lower then the top of the dam. If water got high enough it would run thru the railroad underpass and wash it out. Go look at the dam and you will see. We have had storms just as bad since.

[qshrek]

Very good point, I forgot about the railroad. It would go there before the it breached the damn, as designed.

[GrayLensman51]

@qshrek

Sorry, but you are wrong. In 1972, I was 21 years old and was a student at the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit at Bainbridge, Maryland just up the hill from Port Deposit, Maryland. When the word came down to us on the base, we were told to stand by in case we were needed for additional emergency civil defense manpower. We were informed at that time that water was flowing over the top roadway by about 3 or 4 feet and that explosives were in place to help increase the flow rate

[GrayLensman51]

@GrayLensman51 It turns out they did not have to use the explosives but the fact remains that the Conowingo dam did suffer an over the top event. Ironically, I now work as an operator of a sister dam in central Missouri (Bagnall Dam on the Osage River) designed by the same engineering firm and when I saw this video, it raised the hair on the back of my neck now that I better understand how close they came to losing it, espeically the details about the crest gates being in bad shape. WOW

[33rdPatriot]

I heard the dam is haunted. Spooky.

[aries1072]

What agenda does a dying man have but to tell the truth. You didn't know him.

[MCaperoon]

Wow!!! Is there any pictures of the water going over the top of the dam?

[BUNGLEJYME]

I can't see any reason to doubt what Elder Silvercloud has shared here. He sounds like a very knowledeable man. The force of water is incredible. Who is foolish enough to believe that man's puny structures are any match against the forces of nature.

[56919021]

I was very entertained by this video. I also have verified most of the story he tells and found it to be accurate. Peace be with you Oakley !

[TheSilvercloudTapes]

At the time of this videotaping Elder Silvercloud was in home hospice care dying of Cancer. All those who came in contact with him in those final days found him to be a radiant and cheerful spirit.

The producers of this video knew Elder Silvercloud for many years and found him to be a man of honor and integrity. He was also very honest about his own mistakes & shortcomings and, as far as we could tell, held a grudge against no man (or dam).

We leave it to the viewers to research and judge.

[adennisphipps]

Full of inaccurate and biased comments. Oakley was fired shortly after Agnes.

[TheSilvercloudTapes]

Please elaborate. Are you saying that the Conowingo dam did NOT suffer any lasting damage in that storm?

Why should anyone give your observations and opinions any more credibility than Oakley's? Were you there too? If so, in what capacity?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[moucon]

@TheSilvercloudTapes Mr "adennisphipps" can't elaborate because he/she is full of crap - just trying to stir up trouble.

[moucon]

@adennisphipps  What the hell do you know? Why would this old man have any kind of agenda to be "biased" - he's simply telling what he remembered.