Two Runaway Barges Hitting Dam

Thought I would post this. The power of water. I don't live that far from a river about a mile tops, and it has been running high for quite some time now. Those poor people down south in Oklahoma and Texas have been pummeled with rain lately. These two barges some how broke loose and headed for a dam. The vid shows them hitting and sinking. The link has another vid.
kfor.com...

I wonder what damage was caused that can't be seen.

They were talking about that on the radio this morning I think. They had told people downstream to prepare for evac and catastrophic flooding if those barges hit, but they had, at that time, gotten stuck on some rocks and officials though they could get them secured.

I guess those barges broke loose and hit the dam after all. I hope the predictions of catastrophic flooding prove to be wrong, but we're expecting anywhere from 2 to 6" more rain this week and it's all upstream from there.

a reply to: ketsuko
Not good. You don’t need more. Keeping an eye on Mississippi. Hoping for the best.

Well they sunk to the bottom, problem solved when they lost their load in deep water.

a reply to: Justoneman

Not necessarily. That impact was pretty rough. Who knows what kind of damage it might have done and now you have the strain of all that water pushing on the dam and more forecast to come through with no end in sight for the near future.

a reply to: Tarzan the apeman.

If this were 9/11 the damn would have exploded into dust particles!

a reply to: Tarzan the apeman.

thats a weir - not a dam

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Yes, a weir and on full spill by the look of it so there's already what looks like a minimum head difference across it. Not that it wouldn't pose a risk downstream if the weir were to fail but it wouldn't be catastrophic (river would rise a few feet maybe).

If it was a tall spilling dam holding back 100' head on the upstream side that would be a different matter.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: Tarzan the apeman.

If this were 9/11 the damn would have exploded into dust particles!

lol yep! And I'd be damned if the water wasn't 'dustified' - coz .... barges! And we all know that they can (probably) vaporizate solid water into .... air

not those ones, obviously they weren't 'weaponized' otherwise OMFG heeeelp! us!

In fact, this is where the terms "argy bargy" and "barging in" comes from back in the day, they were bloody bargestards

a reply to: ignorant_ape

A weir is a low built dam according to Webster.

i am unable to decide which is more amusing - the y-yube comments or this thread

view from the opoosite side of incident

a reply to: Tarzan the apeman.

I see they didn't mention they were full of liquid fertilizer which will poison the drinking water,as if they haven't been hit hard enough

mea culpa - i stands corected

teh webber falls instalation is a dam

it retains the webbers falls reservoir

i found this out while wondering why there was such panic that it might fail - as " identical looking " wiers on major navigations in europe are almost fail proof

i am still unsure why people fear its failure - but hey interesting link :

kinky