Earthen dam breaks near Grand Canyon after heavy rain; hundreds being evacuated

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Chicago Tribune

PHOENIX (AP) _ Officials are evacuating hundreds of people from the Grand Canyon after an earthen dam broke following heavy rains.

Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge says the Redlands Dam broke early Sunday. It is causing flooding in the town of Supai at the bottom of the canyon.

She says Supai is not under water. About 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live there. No injuries have been reported.

Oltrogge says some campers and river runners in the canyon also are being evacuated by seven helicopters. Evacuees are being taken to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs.

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Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-grand-canyon-flooding,0,5400902.story

[Mz Pip]

1. It's pretty obvious to me

that our infrastructure has been neglected far too long. More of this kind of thing will be happening.

California has 600 miles of levees. It would be a disaster if they started crumbling during a rainy season.

But tax cuts are more important than millions of acres of agricultural land and 10's of thousands of homes. Go figure.

[az chela]

2. Wow this is scary,the indians that live in the bottom

of the canyon could be in real danger.They have to ride mules up trails to get out of there.I hope they are all safe.

[maddezmom]

3. Sending thought to the members of the Havasupai

My husband and I with some other friend hiked down and spent a weekend there. Beautiful area.

[shanti]

9. supai

one of the most awesome places on earth! sooooo beautiful....

[ben_meyers]

4. DAM! We have been getting too much rain in the SW,

but the dam didn't "break" it was over topped. Gotta be careful about those floodplains, there is a reason that they are called floodplains!

Clair Ketchum, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Flagstaff, reported the Redlands Dam, about 45 to 50 miles south of the Havasupai Reservation, had breached.

"We've had two days of very heavy rains from thunderstorms (that) dropped significant moisture over that area; that's what caused the dam to become overtopped and breached," Ketchum said. "More rain . . . (is expected) later on this afternoon. (We expect) development of showers over northwest moving southeast over the area."

Maybe the drought is over.
BTW, nobody reported hurt or missing.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/17/20080817supai0817online.html#comments

[maddezmom]

5. thanks for the update

:hi:

[bluesmail]

6. Agreement that America's (That hurt to type it) infrastructure

may never get close to what it once was. Thanks Cheney/*... God Bless America.

[ChazII]

7. Dumb question on my part --

Since this is on the Havasupai Reservation, what part or how much is the Federal gov't to blame? How much control do the Native Americans have over this property if any? How would I frame my question if I were to go to Google?

[NMDemDist2]

8. the federal Bureau of Reclamation is responsible for that water shed IIRC

it's upstream and owned by a Power company in Colorado it appears....

[ChazII]

10. Thanks. n/t

[ben_meyers]

12. It had nothing to do with crumbling infrastructure,

nothing to do with tax cuts, Bush, BLM, BIA, Obama, FEMA, Clinton, Native Americans, Global Warming or a warning from God. It freaking rained a lot and the dam over flowed. No politics, no one to blame!

[Igel]

14. I tried to frame the question.

The problem isn't that the infrastructure crumbled--there was just too much water, the dam wasn't high enough, its specs were exceeded.


The question asked isn't easy to answer, either. Lots of levees and dams around the country weren't build by government. Some were by branches of the federal government, some by state or local governments; some were built by power companies or land owners. Some were built a long time ago, some weren't officially permitted. Figuring out who built a dam or a levee isn't always the same as figuring out who's responsible for maintenance. So in Iowa, recently, a bunch of the failed levees were private or locally built and maintained, and some of the towns responsible for maintaining them had been told they'd not done a good job (but infrastructure maintenance doesn't usually get votes).

A lot of ownership/maintenance-responsibility information is really hard to come by on the net.

But maintenance isn't at issue, it appears, for this particular dam.

[ChazII]

16. Thank you for your common sense

and your answer.

I should not have jumped to the conclusion that there was some 'one' to blame.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. Sending good vibes for the people of Supai...

...whom I hope to meet one day.
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[Ian David]

13. Other third-world countries don't maintain their infrastructure, either. n/t

[maddezmom]

15. 11 still missing after Grand Canyon flood

11 still missing after Grand Canyon flood
Posted: 05:34 PM ET
PEACH SPRINGS, Arizona (CNN) — Rescuers were searching Monday for 11 missing people who may have been victims of treacherous floods caused after rain breached an earthen dam near the Grand Canyon.

About 270 people had been rescued from the area Sunday and Monday, said Maureen Oltrogge, Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman.


more:http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/18/11-still-missing-after-grand-canyon-flood/