South Dakota Dam Set To Burst Officials Warn

The Intel Hub
Shepard Ambellas
July 30, 2011

There is potential for disaster brewing with the rising flood waters — possible failure of the White Lake Dam in Marshall County, SD.

Emergency Management Officials fear that the dam might burst after pieces of the structure have already been swept away by the powerful flood waters.

Local officials expect a total loss of the dam.

ABC’s KSFY reported that;

Marshall County Highway Superintendent Butch Wilson says, “they said part of the top has blown off of it, or washed off from it, and there’s supposedly a fairly good sized hole in roughly the center of the dam.”

The White Lake Dam holds between 500 and 600 acres of water and used to be the towns drinking water that water is now falling over the dam’s spillway at an excessive rate.  Wilson says, “I don’t know what kind of water they’re talking about coming over there or if that blows out, but it will definitely cause some damage to farmers’ fields, county roads, township roads, which we absolutely don’t need at this point.”

About 100 yards from the spillway lies Highway 27, if the spillway did collapse and released unknown amounts of water into nearby farms and roads, it would be catastrophic.  Dinger says, “it’s anybody’s guess it all depends on how quickly it spreads, if it roars out into the channel for a while before it spreads out, ya know eventually it’s gonna hit county roads, definitely a lot of townships, individuals that will be affected with it.”

The governor has also issued a “NO Boating Zone” in Marshall County due to the recent heavy rains and flooding that have caused the Marshall Spillway to become undermined.

The conditions continue to be monitored locally.

Due to the recent snow pack just now starting to melt in Montana (some 30 plus feet of it) we expect more flooding along the Mississippi River region in the coming weeks.

The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant is still under threat and The Intel Hub will continue to monitor the situation.

Before disasters take place — it is a good time to Get Your Water Filtration Now! (Ad)

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