There is a well-known video with multiple fire fighter drownings in a low head dam on the Susquehanna from the 1970s near Binghamton NY - quite sobering and sad to watch. Googling might find the video. From what I can tell, it is a big, wide, powerful river with more than a few low-head dams, all of which I'd avoid.
For being above dams, I read in the last week where a boat (power I think) went through the Clinton Lake spillway in Illinois, also with bad consequences. Last article I saw said the people were still missing.
Being below a non-low head dam you just have to deal with turbulence and potentially some vigorous eddylines and strong eddies (which could sometimes suck you somewhere you don't want to be).
Confused Water… My question was aimed at the fact that the dam is 20 minutes from my house. For an easily accessible rough water paddle it is the closest and easiest.
Not all of us have the luxury of living near whitewater or near the coast. I have a whitewater boat and may do some ww paddling this year, although prefer coastal paddling now. I plan to make lots of trips to the coast in the warmer weather…but for now just want some easily accessible rough water that I can paddle every week.
I go above the dam b/c on a day with the right wind it the water there is quite choppy (whearas other areas near me on the Chesapeake are disappointingly flat).
Whenever I have paddled up there I have to drive across the dam and have always salivate at the reflective waves right there. Looked like fun, just was not sure about the safey of it; however due to security reasons it appear that it is not LEGAL so guess it’s out of the question anyway.
Just wanted to clarify…comments from a guy stuck in a land of flat water.
Knox Mine disaster did virtually end coal mining as a large commercial enterprise in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area. Water traveled dozens of miles from the breach into the mines.
My father said railroad box cars looked like Lionel trains swirling in the waters before they were sucked under.
susquehanna dam you can not get close enough.because of security issues, there are markers that you are not allowed to go past before you get to the dam.if you go past them, the police will turn you away,fine you or arrest you.we live just above the boat ramp in conowingo and every time the national security goes elevated a guard from the dam comes over and will lock up the boat ramp.this is a result from 911.
And this past week, as another poster mentions above, three hapless victims (link says two bodies found, took them several more days to find the child, third victim's lifeless corpse) went over and died. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070315/ap_on_re_us/boat_accident
Basically, new motor boat, simply ran out of gas, called calmly for gas from the marina (about ten minuts motor boat away), no stranded boat there by the time the gas arrived. Search party, boat over dam/spillway! Grandfather, male uncle, and 8 yo boy dead. Took them about 5 days---yes, five days--just to locate and extricate the 8 yo boy. When they couldn;t find his body, they used underwater cameras to check the hydraulic under the spillway (it is not actually a dam with a regulator on the water flow, so they cannot "turn it off") and they found the kid's body under there but had no way to get it out. Somehow, they finally dredged it out days after the tragedy.
I paddle above the spillway often. It is a serene concrete "wall" that only has water over it when the lake gets high, like now. It is with a few foam buoys that say "warning" in faded red paint, but there is no protection from something, anything, going over. In this case, boat out of gas, add a little side wind and relative novices in boat, and boom: tragedy unfolds with fatal consequences x 3 lives.
Now, that recent story was from above the dam. What about playing below the dam, a small dam? Well, the Fox River Yorkville Dam is the #1 killer dam in IL, and one of the most heinous killer dams in the USA. Think it's a mammoth, ten story concrete "Hoover Dam"? Think again.
Roller dams are a type of weir, or a dam that is designed to allow water to constantly spill over the top. The Fox is a simple and small roller dam.
But deadlier than a rabid dog or a possesed antique car in an old Stephen King thriller, the tiny Yorkville dam has claimed the lives of 16 hapless victims, all finding their way into the hydraulic at the base. The spill doesn't kill then (it's only a few feet high), but its the undertow at the base. 16 lost souls all gasping for air and getting a lungful of brown water, their brains slowly pickled from lack of oxygen while in the grips of this innocent appearing dam. This video (which explains 13 other deaths on this dam, plus these three brings the official internet confirmed current tally to 16). Click this video for a heart-wrenching news cast. What a poised little 10-yo daughter, Alyssa, of the dead kayaker. And look at that absolutely innocuous appearing "bump" in the river. That is a shark-like death machine. You have to see it to believe it. And notice, unlike a shark that will give you a warning fin sticking out of the water before he gets you, this tiny, picturesque roller dam has little if any (a side buoy or two) warning despite taking 16 souls.
Ohio Ohio rivers and streams are loaded with innocent looking low head dams. There is apparently a plan to remove many of them, but it’s a slow process and few are marked. As avid kayakers and canoists on this board, most of us are aware of the dangers these dams pose, but I don’t believe the general public understands how dangerous they really are.
Personally, low head damns scare the hell out of me. The need to constantly be on the lookout for these unmarked killing machines and portage them is a good way to ruin an otherwise serene adventure at best. If it’s a new (to you) run, you have your eyes glued to a map or GPS the whole time.
You couldn’t have a “better” combination; very difficult to see, innocuous looking when visible and incredibly dangerous.
I agree I’d like to see an anti-lowhead dam movement gain steam in Ohio. I confess I don’t really understand what the negative consequences of removing them are. Can you replace them with artificial designed whitewater features that are less dangerous? Would it screw up the workings of the Muskingum River’s historic hand operated locks if you blasted the dam? Would it make a river unnavigable by anything other can canoes and kayaks?
Click on the link above to read about some of the benefits of removing lowhead dams and what it takes. This is just a summary report, but it will give you an idea of what is happening and what it takes to successfully remove a lowhead dam.
