"Nature bats last."

http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/faculty/sylvester/Teton_Dam/welcome_dam.html

Teton Dam Failure

The Teton Dam, 44 miles northeast of Idaho Falls in southeastern Idaho, failed abruptly on June 5, 1976. It released nearly 300,000 acre feet of water, then flooded farmland and towns downstream with the eventual loss of 14 lives, directly or indirectly, and with a cost estimated to be nearly $1 billion.

The purpose of this web page is to present a series of slides that show the breakup of the dam from its incipient failure stage to when the dam was completely breached. The slides were taken by Mrs. Eunice Olson of St. Anthony, Idaho, who presented the set to the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, to sell and to subsidize, thereby, a scholarship for undergraduate students in Earth sciences. The department, now the Department of Engineering and Geological Sciences, no longer sells the set, and has unofficially agreed that it would be a good thing to place this unique collection on the web. Attempts to contact Mrs.Olson have been unsuccessful, but nevertheless, all credit for the break up sequence of slides belongs to her.

http://www.geol.ucsb.edu/faculty/sylvester/Teton_Dam/narrative.html

Teton Dam Failure Narrative

Overview of the Failure of Teton Dam, 5 June 1976

Teton Dam, a 305-foot high earthfill dam across the Teton River in Madison County, southeast Idaho, failed completely and released the contents of its reservoir at 11:57 AM on June 5, 1976. Failure was initiated by a large leak near the right (northwest) abutment of the dam, about 130 feet below the crest. The dam, designed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, failed just as it was being completed and filled for the first time. snip

Aftermath

Investigations by commissions and boards together with recriminations, typical of most disasters, followed the failure of Teton Dam. Lessons were learned, but no attempt has been made to rebuilt the dam. Its remnant sits today in silent testimony that "Nature bats last."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdM6Ys6spA

Teton Dam Collapse