Your Mark On The World
I am bringing you an excerpt today from "Your Mark on the World". Please read below and make sure to follow the rest of the tour and giveaway. Also click on the picture or word link above to purchase it for yourself!
An Eleven-year-old’s Promise
Saturday, June 5, 1976, was a beautiful, sunny day in
Eastern Idaho. People were going about
their mostly agricultural business as usual.
Little did they know that a silent, unannounced disaster awaited them.
Four years earlier, the U.S. Government had begun
construction on a large, earthen dam on the Teton River. The Teton Dam was one of several built during
that time period using similar construction materials and design.
In the spring of 1976, the dam was complete and the
reservoir behind it was filling for the first time. As the spring runoff brought the water down
the river, the water level in the reservoir was rising four feet per day. The water level was nearly to capacity.
Only the relatively small emergency outlet works were in
service at the time. The main outlet
works and the spillway were not yet in service.
Officials observed water seeping through the dam on Thursday
morning, two days earlier. Such seepage,
however, was not considered unusual for an earthen dam and no extra precautions
were taken.
At 7:30 Saturday morning, the seepage had become running,
muddy water, suggesting there was a leak eroding the dam. Still not worried, no action was taken. By 9:30 in the morning, the dam featured a
visible wet spot and water was spewing out and beginning to erode the face of
the dam.
Crews with bulldozers were sent in to repair the leak at
this point. Media began to arrive to
follow the story. By 11:15 in the
morning, officials announced the need to evacuate downstream communities. The bulldozers were sucked into the widening
gap in the dam and their operators had to be rescued by coworkers using ropes
as they scrambled on foot to escape the disaster.
At 11:55 AM, the dam collapsed, sending its contents down
the canyon toward the communities of Wilford, Sugar City, Hibbard and Rexburg,
the latter being by far the largest.
Teton Dam, June 5, 1976, by Eunice Olson.
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