America's best idea was established in 1916 with the establishment came founding principles of preserving the parks for the enjoyment of future generations water resources in parks are important for their scenic beauty wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities many lakes and ponds in national parks are formed by man-made dams we have been entrusted to protect people and park resources from the hazards of these dams federal department and MPs policies require us to have safe dams history has shown that dams can fail and cause tremendous loss of life and property the National Park Service experienced a tragic dam failure in 1982 lawn Lake stood at tree line and at almost 11,000 feet above sea level the dam was built in 1903 to increase the storage of the high mountain lake the dam was about 560 feet long and 26 feet high there were three campsites on the trail up to the lake and one camping area at the lake itself people enjoyed the scenic beauty of the lake in the early morning hours of July 15th 1982 one camper recalled at 2:00 in the morning I awoke and I heard at the time I assumed it was just however I thought it strange that the tent was not fluttering it wasn't doing seepage was accelerating and creating a hole through the dam and had approximately 5 a.m. gave way the lake Lord rapidly nearly 700 acre feet of water enough to fill a sports stadium three times drained in about an hour the water rushed through the 97 foot wide breach the maximum flow was the same as the volume of 18,000 basketballs passing every second the water began flowing down the steep roaring river before the flood the roaring river was so highly vegetated it could not be seen from the air the 25 foot high dam failure flood tore into the riverbed and took trees rocks and everything else in its path down it flowed toward three campsites at the ipsilon campsite a man recalled at about 6:20 in morning all in our party were awakened by a loud tree breaking thunder by the time we looked out our tents our surge of water was 15 feet away sending trees crashing downward water and debris reached our tent as we scrambled uphill in steep sections the erosion was over 50 feet deep and in flatter areas the flood made deposits up to 500 feet wide as the flood neared the Roaring River campsite one camper was up making coffee I started to hear a sound like an airplane also there were loud booms and it got louder and louder I got suspicious and started to look upstream I saw trees crashing over and a wall of water coming down I started to run as fast as I could for high ground there was a deafening roar I fell and got up and kept running I stood on high ground and called out to my camp me watched it wipe out our campsite it knocked everything in its path and my partner didn't stand a chance twelve thousand cubic foot per second flood made one final turn and made its final 500 foot descent to the horseshoe valley the flood dropped its load of trees and rock creating an alluvial fan 42 acres in size and up to 44 feet deep one Rock moved by the flood was estimated to weigh 452 tons at 6:15 a.m. mr. Stephen Gillette was driving his truck into Horseshoe Park to empty the trash barrels at the lawn Lake trailhead I can hardly wait to get there because it's usually a very quiet place of solitude and as I arrive I get out of the truck and I hesitate I hear what I think is a plane crash I look up the hill I see a ponderosa pine doing a loop-de-loop in the air I immediately go back to my truck but in Reverse you see telephone like trailhead alert national park on my way to the trailhead I'm almost there I see an early riser terrorists on his way to the Indo Valley area I think oh my I must block the road I blocked the road I get out I run to the telephone call headquarters let them know that I believe now that the dam has broken mr. Joe let's call started the warning an evacuation of the entire downstream area including a small dam downstream a campground cottages along the river and the town of Estes Park five minutes later a park ranger arrived and met mr. Gillette on the Fall River Bridge they saw the flood coming toward them the leading edge was 100 yards wide wall of logs and other debris about six feet high was coming at with water reached the road and began rising mr. Gillette and the Ranger left the bridge just as the flood front quickly widened and over topped the road the bridge collapsed the dam failure floodwaters began filling the East End of Horseshoe Park mr. Gillette stopped at an overlook and recalled later that it looked like an ocean by this time the Horseshoe Park is filling up and I think I need to get back to Estes Park I do that I get back down get through town to where our business is located before the water hits downtown Estes Park observers thought that the wide meadow had soaked up the flood like a sponge and that the worst part was over but the worst was not over the water was still moving and began to flow East out of Horseshoe Park the Cascade reservoir lie just downstream from Horseshoe Park at 7:00 a.m. the flood began pouring into the reservoir at 7:15 there was a rapid rise in the water level behind the 17 foot high cascade dam ten minutes later people staying at the cascade cottages witnessed the flood overtopping the concrete at the peak over four feet of water was rushing over the crest of the dam after 17 minutes of overtopping the outlet control house began to break away the near side of the dam rotated forward the entire structure began to lean downstream then the dam finally toppled over the surge from the failure more than doubled the flood to 16,000 cubic feet per second the small reservoir quickly emptied sending a new surge of water of downstream while the dam was over topping a ranger at the scene decided to drive to the Aspen Glen campground to confirm that the 275 campers had fully evacuated the ranger recalled we proceeded as quickly as possible to the Aspen Glen area reaching the Fall River at approximately 7:30 3:00 in the morning the flood waters were at that time over the road I informed dispatch that we couldn't get into the campground and approximately 7:45 I detected a noticeable increase in the noise and observe two large trees crack and fall about 100 yards upstream I immediately returned to my vehicle and drove about 50 yards northward on the road I observed that the flood had increased to twice the width in less than 30 seconds but not move my vehicle I would have been washed away at 7:48 I informed dispatch as the crest of the Cascade dam flood had passed by my location and that the aspen glen campground was isolated one charge toward the camp all of the campers near the river had evacuated but two campers went back over this bridge who retrieved camping gear flood rapidly increased in size and they were swept away the flood filled stock ponds at a state fish hatchery destroying 90,000 fish local officials raced ahead of the flood to warn people in cottages and motels buildings were knocked off their foundations broadcast from the local ksi our radio station and it's on the scene reporters as the flood began to recede officers boarded the waters after hearing reports of people trapped in a building fortunately no one in town lost their lives downstream of the town the Fall River floodwaters entered late estes logs and debris floated on the surface Olympus dam contain the flood by 9:30 a.m. the critical emergency had passed 177 businesses were inundated representing three-quarters of the businesses in estes park damages totaled 31 million dollars and the town was declared a federal disaster area and most tragically three lives were lost even after 30 years the after-effects of the lawn lake dam failure are still very evident on the parks landscape today how do we keep dams from failing in the national parks and causing destruction like the lawn Lake Dam failure first we keep an inventory of all dams we also inventory dams we don't own whose failure would harm Park resources or people downstream secondly for the dams we own we assign Park Service staff as dam tenders this assignment is critically important dam tenders receive training routinely monitor the dams and look for seepage cracks or other problems thirdly we maintain the dams we also have expert engineers examine and review the risks of our dams when risks exceed guidelines we repair the dams should a dam fail we have emergency action plans to respond and alert public safety officials to warn and evacuate people downstream we also remove dams that no longer serve the purposes of the Puck's dams and their reservoirs benefit the parks however dams hold back a powerful force that when Unleashed can destroy Park resources and threaten lives managing the risks of dams is an important responsibility we share [Music] [Music]
