The Teton Dam Disaster

At 11:57 am on June 5, 1976, the Teton Dam, a 305-foot high earthfill dam across the Teton River in Madison County, southeast Idaho, failed completely.

At the time of failure, the reservoir was almost full and contained 251,000 acre-feet of water. After the breach the main part of the reservoir emptied in about 5 hours.

The snake river valley was devastated.

My family was living in the Idaho Falls area at the time of the flood. My father and uncle took photos of the aftermath. This video is comprised of never-seen-before photos taken by them shortly after the flood ripped through the valley.

Both my father and uncle took part in the battle to save Idaho Falls from the oncoming rush of water.

Sources used in video: Teton Dam Failure Narrative and Teton Dam Flood.

To view a version of this video without the text, visit my other Teton Dam Disaster upload at http://youtu.be/f45isb9xvCA .

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Teton Dam
• Flood
• Snake River Plain
• Teton Flood

[nansouthclark]

The music in this video I got from Audio Swap. It's called, "A Search for Significance." The artist is Dax Johnson and the album is "Merciful Dwelling." I thought it was beautiful.

[mudrake2]

Only civil engineers would consider a core comprised of "clay, sand, gravel and cobbles" impermiable to water. Did they have first year engineering students design the thing? It is not surprising though. The engineers at the univ. I attended did not have to take a class in geology until 1978. I helped teach it and made them study cases like this dam failure. It came as a surprise to all of them that things like this happen due to ignorance of geology and earth materials.

[nansouthclark]

@leadman22 : I uploaded a version without the text. Thanks for your input.

[nansouthclark]

@leadman22 - Good point. I think I will upload a version with no text.

[witecracker2]

INCREDIBLE @!! thank you for putting this on the web, its eerie...

[knockUout20]

what's the music to this called? plz share