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b_b · 1648 days ago · link · · parent · post: 2 Michigan dams breached, thousands evacuated amid flooding
So more simply stated, there are a lot of catastrophes that are not foreseeable, and this is not one of them.
One of the basic arguments of Cadillac Desert is that we view dams as eternal when in fact they are ephemeral. Complicating that, the inspections necessary and the staff available to perform them means that in general, someone coming by every couple of years and going "yep, that's a dam" is about where we're at, and have been since the 1910s. So when someone actually gets their act together enough to go "holy shit this thing is a deathtrap" it's been a deathtrap for decades.