Flooding causes catastrophic dam failure in Iowa
KCCI:
Warning sirens were set off in the small eastern town of Hopkinton as water continued to flow through a dam on Lake Delhi.
The National Weather Service said the Lake Delhi dam has failed and small communities downstream could be severely flooded.
The lake, which is part of the Maquoketa River, has been rising in recent days because of torrential rains.
On Saturday the rising water pushed a 30-foot-wide gap into the earthen dam, allowing water to drop up to 45 feet into the area below the dam near Hopkinton, a town of about 700 people.
Meteorologist Chris Legro told the Associated Press that water was detected flowing beneath the dam and a complete failure is possible.
...So far it appears that everyone got out in time to avoid the flood. The engineers will have to study the area to find out what caused the dam to give way besides the obvious fact of it holding too much water. It is not clear why the dam was not releasing water to avoid such an event.
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