Dam breaks at Laurel Run and Sandy Run
Coordinates: 40 ° 34 ′ 8.5 " N , 78 ° 29 ′ 57.8" W.
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On July 20, 1977, the dams at Laurel Run and neighboring Sandy Run in Pennsylvania broke . The two disasters together killed 44 or 45 people.
The Laurel Run Dam was located in Cambria County , about 20 kilometers west of the city of Altoona . The 16-year-old dam made of bulk material was 12.8 m high; the reservoir was 8.9 hectares in size and contained 555,000 m³. At 2:35 a.m. the dam broke. The disaster killed 39 or 40 people and resulted in property damage of US $ 20 to 45 million.
The cause of the damage was flooding during a severe storm, which washed away the earth dam. Since the accident happened at night, there were no warnings, so that the people in the 5 km long narrow valley below the dam were surprised in their sleep. Six houses were destroyed and 19 damaged.
On the same day the ten kilometers north located and built in 1914 Sandy Run Dam (broke location ), where there were five deaths, and five other dams. The Sandy Run dam was then 8.5 m high and held 57,000 m³, it has already been rebuilt.
There have been two other dam disasters in Pennsylvania so far, namely:
- South Fork Dam (1889)
- Austin Dam (1911)