The flood wave eventually destroyed the other two dams and continued in to seventeen Buffalo Creek towns. The entire Buffalo Creek valley, 17-miles, was destroyed by the ten to twenty foot high flood.
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Figure 2.
Why did it fail?:.
The Buffalo Creek dam failed due to poor design, poor analysis, and ethical issues. There was no unforeseen event which caused this failure, rain and snow should have been taken in to account when the dam was designed. First of all, there was no analysis involved in the construction of this dam. The company did not at any time take in to account engineering analysis including a factor of safety. Normally vegetation would be removed from the surrounding area. However, truck drivers just dumped waste wherever they felt. They also should have compacted the waste to help strengthen the dam. There could have been some kind of analysis prior to the construction of the design, which could have saved many lives. .
The design of the dam was also poor, The Citizens" Commission agreed with this as well. "The dam, built by Pittston, was never designed to hold 130 million gallons of water nor was it built by a qualified engineer who potentially could have made the structure strong and safe to hold the large volume of water."(www.wvgazette.com) The Department of the Interior Task Force also stated, .
"From an engineering point of view, the dam was not designed and constructed such that it would be considered safe for the retention of large volumes of water over any lengthy period of time The volume of water stored behind #3 dam seems far in excess of that needed to clear sediments and otherwise for treatment to conform with state standards before discharging the water into Buffalo Creek." (www.wvgazette.com).
The coal company did not even investigate basic design requirements for the stability of the dam over time.