An Engineering Disaster on Edge of L.A. Left Nearly 500 Forgotten Deaths

The following excerpt is from newsweek.com

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The remnants of the worst engineering disaster of 20th-century America sit about an hour’s drive from downtown Los Angeles…

Eighty-eight years ago, the St. Francis Dam burst in the middle of a March night, killing nearly 500 people. There are some images of the aftermath, but numbers tell the story better: 12.4 billion gallons of water rising to the furious height of 140 feet, surging 54 miles to the Pacific Ocean, an inland tsunami 2 miles wide leveling towns in its path. Some thought a saboteur had dynamited the dam. This would be easier to believe than the dam failing and people dying senselessly. But that was the case. And given the sorry state of American infrastructure, something similar could be the case again: the St. Francis Dam as portent, not aberration.

Read the full article.

About Dale Meitzler

Dale R. Meitzler : Assisted the start up of Heritage Quest in 1985 and participated in seven years of non-stop Heritage Quest Road Shows. Dale managed the warehouse at Heritage Creations, joined the U.S. Army in 2007, currently he manages warehouse operations and bookstore-vendor operations for Family Roots Publishing Company.

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