Lake Blackshear
| Lake Blackshear Warwick Reservoir, Flint River Dam |
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| Coordinates | 31 ° 50 '42 " N , 83 ° 55' 59" W | ||||||||||
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| Reservoir length | 23 km | ||||||||||
| Reservoir width | 2 km | ||||||||||
The Lake Blackshear (also Warwick Reservoir ) is a reservoir on the Flint River in the US state of Georgia .
Dam burst 1994
On July 9, 1994, there was a dam break at Lake Blackshear (Flint River Dam) near Warwick in Crisp County , which resulted in 15 deaths.
The earth dam was 700 feet (210 m) long, less than 15 m high and the reservoir had an area of 8,600 acres (approximately 34.8 km²). The Flint River was dammed in 1930 to generate electricity from hydropower . The reservoir was used for recreation.
According to Patrick McCully, it was two earth dams less than 15 m high that broke during the tropical cyclone ( hurricane ) Alberto when they were overflowed by floods. According to other sources, a total of 217 dams and levees broke in the storm in Georgia, killing more people. The storm lasted 11 days with up to 30 inches (762 mm) of rain falling. Large parts of Georgia were disaster areas. Statistically, the 1994 flood was a 500 year flood .
Bainbridge, Albany and Newton were particularly hard hit by the dam break on Lake Blackshear . 5,000 families were left homeless as a result of the dam breach and around 25,000 people had to leave their homes. The Newton further below was submerged another 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 m).
The dam was rebuilt. The costs amounted to 7 million US dollars .
See also
literature
- Georgia flood deaths, International Water Power and Dam Construction, August 1994
- Patrick McCully: Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams
Individual evidence
Web links
- Lake Blackshear (PDF; 370 kB)