’71 Valley Quake a Brush With Catastrophe
SAN FERNANDO — It was not only the biggest quake in San Fernando Valley history at the time, but it was the first strong one in the Valley since 1893.
The San Fernando quake, in fact, could have been a catastrophe instead of just a costly disaster. That conclusion arises from its most striking episode: the near-collapse of the lower dam at the Van Norman reservoir.
The 1,100-foot dam held 3.6 billion gallons of water on the morning of Feb. 9, 1971, but it was only half full; the water level was 36 feet below the lip.
The top 30 feet of the edifice crumbled, leaving the water only six feet from the top and fresh chunks of earth falling off with each aftershock.
A year to the day before the quake, the dam held 6.5 billion gallons of water, and its level was eight to 10 feet higher than the level to which the top of the dam slumped in the quake. Engineers recognized that had such a vast quantity of water spilled over the top, the entire dam would have quickly been washed away.
Later, a UCLA study estimated that collapse of the dam would have brought flooding that could have killed between 71,600 and 123,400 people.
’71 Valley Quake a Brush With Catastrophe – Los Angeles Times
Arnie thinks that global warming is California’s biggest problem.
You mean something like this on a larger scale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teton_Dam
I drove through there in October of that year.
California’s biggest problem are the corrupt politicians led by Jerry The Great McMoonbeam.
I was 11 years old, staying and was at my grandparents in Sunland ( a little west of the epicenter) the morning of that quake. I was just waking up, I remember hearing a big rumbling sound and a bit of vibration, as if a big truck were rolling down the street, then felt like the bed was being thrown left and right. It was the first (and hopefully the only ) big quake I had been in.
The two ‘bigger’ stories I recall were the new wing of the Olive View hospial, that ‘dropped to the ground’ as I recalI , and the huge concern about the possibility of the Van Norman dam breaking. Sure good thing that it didn’t . . .