Earth’s population is heading toward 10 billion and beyond (nobody knows if we’re already there). This level of density requires ever more complex engineering with ever higher stakes in the event of engineering failure. Let me therefore recommend as timely a 1989 book by David McCullough, author of Path Between the Seas (fantastic book about the Panama Canal): The Johnstown Flood.
I can’t quote precisely from the book because I listened to it on Audible. The short story is that Johnstown was part of a canal route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The canal needed a reliable water supply for its locks and, therefore, the state built an artificial lake 450′ above the then-small town (at 1,161′ above sea level). The railroads rendered the canal and lake unnecessary so the state sold the lake and associated earth embankment dam to some rich douches from Pittsburgh who wanted to sail and fish in the mountains during the summer. The douches repaired the dam incompetently, removed outflow pipes so that they couldn’t control the water level, and then let the dam fill up much higher than it ever had. The result, of course, was that the dam failed on May 31, 1889 during some heavy rain and wiped out what had become a town of 10,000+ inhabitants. More than 2,200 people were killed.
The risk was foreseen by even some casually competent engineers who looked at the reconstructed dam, but everyone became complacent.
We’re much smarter today and, therefore, this kind of thing can’t happen to us? It actually happened again in Johnstown itself. There was a significant ordinary flood in 1936. FDR sent in the Army Corps of Engineers and promised that the town wouldn’t be flooded again… which it wasn’t until 1977.
Another interesting aspect of the book is how effective private relief efforts were. The flood did about $17 million of damage in the dollars of the day and people, not yet subject to income tax, voluntarily contributed about $4 million in cash relief. In addition, trainloads of volunteers and supplies were provided to clear debris and rebuild the town. Private companies, especially the railroad, made major contributions. The state government didn’t do much other than help maintain order. The federal government did nothing at all in the way of relief. Today, by contrast, we give a high percentage of what we earn to the Feds and state and then try to get some of that money back when there is a problem. It certainly deprives us of the satisfaction of being charitable and of the pride from volunteering. Who among us can do something significant for storm or flood victims compared to FEMA?
More;: read The Johnstown Flood.
This is my favorite story about global warming: https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/great-1938-hurricane/
Not to just some reach douches. They included https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick, an important industrialist. “as a founding member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, he was also in large part responsible for the alterations to the South Fork Dam that caused its failure, leading to the catastrophic Johnstown Flood.”
perplexed: McCullough’s book doesn’t blame Frick. In fact, it says that one of the reasons that flood victims couldn’t get money out of the club is that no link to actions by club members could be established. There was no doubt that the club management had been negligent, of course, and that “mistakes were made” by its contractor.
Philip, maybe you can add it to the wikipedia article I linked to, I do not see it is referencing the McCullough’s book. I noticed that there are no referential integrity among related Wikipedia articles. Let all the flowers grow policy, so to speak.