Posted on 03/02/2016 10:49:38 AM PST by Jan_Sobieski
Iraqi engineers involved in building the Mosul dam 30 years ago have warned that the risk of its imminent collapse and the consequent death toll could be even worse than reported. They pointed out that pressure on the dam’s compromised structure was building up rapidly as winter snows melted and more water flowed into the reservoir, bringing it up to its maximum capacity, while the sluice gates normally used to relieve that pressure were jammed shut. The Iraqi engineers also said the failure to replace machinery or assemble a full workforce more than a year after Islamic State temporarily held the dam means that the chasms in the porous rock under the dam were getting bigger and more dangerous every day.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi government announced it had signed a 273m Euro contract with an Italian contractor to reinforce and maintain the Mosul dam for 18 months, following talks in New York between the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, and US and Iraqi officials. Italy has said it plans to send 450 troops to protect the dam site, but it is unclear how long it will take to replace damaged machinery and reassemble the required workforce.
The engineers warned that potential loss of life from a sudden catastrophic collapse of the Mosul dam could be even greater than the 500,000 officially estimated, as they said many people could die in the resulting mass panic, with a 20-metre-high flood wave hitting the city of Mosul and then rolling on down the Tigris valley through Tikrit and Samarra to Baghdad. One of the Iraqi engineers, now living in Europe, described as "ridiculous" the Iraqi government’s emergency policy of telling local people to move 6km (3.5 miles) from the river banks...
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Too bad this dam is not upriver of Raqqa, Syria. The ISIS lunatics getting wiped out in a flood would be truly biblical.
dude, surf’s up.
Judgment of the God of Israel on the moozlyms.
But if this so imminent and dangerous why don’t they
RUN AWAY!!!!
sounds much BS, no?
Culling the muzzie herd is a GOOD thing.
I’ve got the money it takes right here.
in my empty pocket.
If they seriously think 1m lives are at danger, why don’t they begin evacuations?
Seriously? They’ll blame Bush for this one just like they’ve done with every other Iraq related topic.
One of the Iraqi engineers, now living in Europe...
You guys in flood’s path - follow that engineer to safety.
And then there’s the Aswan dam in Egypt holding back a hundred mile long lake.
Too bad Mecca is not in the path.
I believe it was Saddam Hussein...
Earthquake while at or near maximum water level would be most likely cause of failure: And they have have earthquakes across that region ever since the walls of Jericho fell down. 8<)
Good news
ISIS exit present—blow the dam?
Sluice gates stuck. Similar to South Fork dam in Johnstown, they couldn’t relieve pressure leading to collapse.
Isn’t this the dam project that dried up the Tigris River that all the environmentalist were concerned with?.
I say let it fail and restore the natural wonder of the river valley
The Iraqis built a dam on a drywall (gypsum) foundation. Has to be one of the biggest engineering blunders in history.
And more to the point, it would be a nice start.
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