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  • What Happens When a Dam Breaks?

What Happens When a Dam Breaks?

An aerial view of a broken dam and flooded river.

Get a birds eye view of the aftermath of the Edenville and Sanford dam failures courtesy of Earth and Atmospheric Science drone pilot Steve Scott.

On May 19, 2020 the Edenville Dam in Edenville, MI failed. Fortunately no lives were lost, but 10,000 people were displaced or evacuated, more than 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages occurred. 

This dam failure released floodwaters on a scale that is hard to imagine without seeing it firsthand. Scientists from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences were some of the first on the scene after the water subsided, surveying the damage and trying to understand exactly what happened and why. 

Watch the video below to get a birds eye view of this incredible catastrophe.

Drone videography by Steve Scott, edited by Clarke DeLisle.

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