I lost my family home of 50 years last May after having it flood 6 feet on three separate occasions. We lost everything. The county took it and demolished all of the homes surrounding it. I live in Ellicott City.. my heart will never be whole again. My neighbors got married in their 20s, moved into their house, and are now in their mid 80s and they lost theirs too.. That was my home, my everything. It was all I ever knew. You don't know the power and strength of water until it's right in front of your eyes, sweeping away every last smile and memory. Now I'm stuck living in a trash bottom floor apartment with neighbors above me who do nothing but deprive me of sleep and sanity. I've never felt so low.

For as much as this is a very scary situation it's also amazing at the clarity of this clip. Excellent footage showing a disaster in the making. I'm sure all the news channels are drooling as they watch. A job well done.

Great footage documenting this entire event. For whatever it is worth, if anyone asks to use your media on a network (TWC, ABC, Fox, etc), don't give it to them for free!

Thanks for helping those of us far away see what's happening where you live.

wow, when the water pushes a hole through the side of your pump house, you know you are on to something special.

The thin ice sign has a whole new meaning.

Seems to me the bigger problem might be the over-topping of the dam over to the left when when this clip starts. You only see part of that for about 3 seconds at the very start. I wish this drone had taken a look at that as well.

"Hey dozer operator let me help you by standing right in your way so you can worry about pushing rocks around me. Not like you have any other distractions going on".

That much water is terrifying but mesmerizing at the same time.

Manufacturer: how many wheels do you want? Dump truck: all of them...

This dam was created almost 100 years ago to bring electricity to a rural area. Good idea in its time. But, it was allowed to exist - and deteriorate - because it produced a lake that increased “waterfront” property values - and tax base. Poor planning, zoning and wishful thinking doomed the folks downstream.

Army core of engineering and our soldiers should be called up make America great .Not alway fighting in other countries

If you live on what used to be Wixom Lake I suggest that you plant wild rice on the old lake bed. This will provide an incredible food source for the fish when the lake returns as well as keep unwanted plants that will encourage and support the DNR and DEQ's desires to return the lake bed to its natural habitation, that of wetlands and swamp. The lake bed is already turning green, once the wetlands habitat returns it will become almost impossible to convince these departments that rebuilding the damn is warranted. Move fast on getting the damn rebuilt or get used to living next to a swamp. A major initiative is required to save your lakeside properties, organize and get approved a huge wild rice planting on the lake bed asap. Plow under the plants that are already starting to return you once beautiful view into a wetlands swamp, cultivate wild rice. Sanford damn is much more likely to be rebuilt due to it "protecting" Midland from flooding, Edenville damn is not seen as helping in flood control, the exact opposite is true. Start now while you can.

Nice to see the emergency overflow window worked like it was supposed to.

All last night, sat on the levee and moaned.. All last night, sat on the levee and moaned Crying won't help ya, crying won't do ya no good... When the levee breaks, have no place to stay... I'll move along, I'll move along...

Thank our politicians of both parties for letting our infrastructure crumble for the past 40 years. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

They're trying to put a bandaid on that... Good luck... I'd be out of there like yesterday!!!

That is a pretty significant hole in the pump house. They are trying to fill the eroded area made by the leak. It will erode the foundation around the pump house very quickly. I hope they can get it contained.

Just found out my grandson is up there trying to help secure this dam! Scary!

I would love to know if the water coming out the side of the powerhouse is just a normal bypass or if it’s something broken?

This must be old, it was before sound was invented.

Great veiw. Your drone is outstanding. Thanks for the video. PEACE-OUT Auradr California

Clearly the spillway is very inadequate for this size of a lake! It might've been okay 100 yrs ago, but now it's just criminal to allow this to happen!

👍 Nice drone work.....!

What are we looking at? Is the engine room in the little building flooded and that water pouring out the window on the other side? This video sure could have done with some explanation. PS the truck that brought the stones didn't do a great job.. those rocks only help the situation when they are dumped IN that hole the water is making in the earthen dam on the side of the building, together with quite a lot more of them. The way the truck driver laid them in the road only makes it that much harder to shove them into that hole later on.

It amazes me that this damn did not fail like Edenville & Sanford dams did...😔

How is the dam doing after a month?

I'm thinking you guys are in danger, and I would not be standing around, power of Mother Nature. Don't mess with her!

Never seen so many small Earthen dams with no armor ... amazing

No, no. I would not want to be those dump truck or front loader operators. Fantastic drone footage!

This crews work is amazing. Most people would run for the hills.

Is that water pouring out of an old window?

What did you film this with? (A drone obviously, what model?)

Thank you for this. Have been trying to follow the flooding fr downstate. This has not been covered in the statewide coverage or if it has, has been minimal.

Look at the erosion where the water is lapping against the wall...scary, some rock in that spot next to the structure aint gunna do much i suspect...just leave!!

Insane video, well done. Drones and water seem to go together. Most of the drone videos I have done involve water. The last on I Put up was actually me crashing into a stream and the drone kept recording as fish swam by. Amazing toys... I subscribed and liked. Thanks for the video.. . TTYL...

What's the problem here? They didn't make the spillways big enough to be able to handle the flow?

what is the water coming out of the building, overflow, breach, broken turbine? What equipment did you use to record? P4, Mavic Air

Nice flying, Great Video

Thanks for the great views. I am interested in seeing what this dam looks like now. Any chance you could go out for another flyover?

Explain where Smallwood is in relation to Wixom that failed and is now dry. And that other lake at Midland.

What were they trying to do? Did they do something that made it break? Did they have enough time to worn the public to evacuate? Ive only seen a few small news clips about this. Is there footage from right when both dams actually broke

Did I miss it or was there no spillway (except the hole in the side of the building)???

That’s a pretty wide span to only have two floodgates?!

why does the water shooting out the side of the building?

No spillway for the high water to go to? Diabolical Engineering there.

If I didn’t pinch myself I’d think I was dreaming that I’m in a movie, virus pandemic, dams breaking, volcanoes erupting, earthquakes and the list goes on... my goodness what a 2020 this year has been so far! Sad to see this devastation.

It's a lot easier to prevent a problem than to fix it. Good luck.

Those two gates are all the dam is??! Not hard to figure out they’d fail

Reminds me of the Spencer Dam here in Nebraska in March 2019. It failed and wiped a small town off the map.

Like putting band-aid on a amputated leg... The load of rocks to shore up the Dam...

Why is the water coming out of the side of the bld

Thanks for the dam tour.

I wonder if that house had problems with the septic tank filling with water?

excellent! this is great! top notch! please keep them coming!

This is not the time to be playing with tractors in the dirt.

Dang that Smallwood really busts...

just a guess, the water coming out the side of the building IS NOT NORMAL?

guy in the dozer: let me push some more rocks closer to this leak, there we go.

Such a small damn for a huge lake!!

I was really looking forward to see that dozer do its thing. Ended just too soon! :(

I don't think those little pebbles that Tonka truck dumped on the ground did any good they?

0:35 - Drone 1 you are cleared for flight level under the power lines and Drone 2 you are cleared for flight level above the power lines.

That's odd how the water curves around the side of the dam as it flows towards the gates and causes a whirlpool of sorts on each side.

Putting that material in there was a waist of time, the force of the water pushed it out as fast as it went in! Luckily it didn't all wash out when they were working on it!

Anyone else notice in the beginning, the pickup and trailer are buried up to the axles in mud..

Dam that was alot of water

Well we didn't have a problem until that damn rain - yea the roof didn't leak either

From the aerial view you could see that was a disaster waiting to happen, very sad.

The footage link in the description box (with sound) is a better watch.

Man you could not pay me enough to drive that dump truck up on a failing dam.

By the look of all that Steel wall piling thats been put along most of the Earth Dam etc a lot of work was/is going on to reinforce this Dam and I think the Generator station has been de-comissioned[temporily maybe?] So I'm thinking as this is the most up river of the three dams The State might have started putting right all the back maintainence and improvements that the Power company that owned the dam did not do. Logically starting on this dam first because if it failed the whole River would flood was a good decision and I assume only so much money each year was/is available because there is no way to make up for years of neglect and deferred maintainence by the Power company in less than 5 Years!

wow, we might see more and more like this in the coming decade.

Nice video Jason!

It seems that maybe 100 yards of concrete would be a better temporary repair as a mass and not disolveable

Gretchen’s folly

As a hydro operator of a similar hydro plant, this freaks me the F' out...

I wish there was more footage of this

Great footage...such devastation.....

Wow look at the erosion. Hopefully they fix that soon.

Goodbye all brick building, you’re going down the Suwanee River...!!!

I sincerely hope they find that elderly barber who wasn't wearing a mask who caused this catastrophe!!!!

Any particular reason the spillways in this Damn system are less than half of the recommended size?

Are you ok if I use this video in one of my upcoming videos? I will give you credit in the video. Please send me an email.

American Infrastructure needs Huge Investment! First the Bridges and Roads Falling apart now the Dams!

thats one brave dude in that dozer creeping up on the dam house breach

How many gigawatts does it take to go back in time and fix this?

If it didn't fail it will guaranteed not enough spillways and you can see its deteriorating

Looks like the turbine flume has a hole in it. That is where they are dumping rock.

Michigan - The Land of 9,999 Lakes!

Even beavers haven't got this figured out completely

All of the Dams are in disrepair and were built of the wrong materials. They were cheaply built and perhaps this was done because of the ignorance and naivety of those engineers who thought this was the way to build dams.....perhaps the knowledge base was not as advanced as it is today and things could have been done a little differently. Who knows anymore! All I can say is there goes all of our Nation's water supply!

Dams are good only during a drought .

It ended too soon!!

Looks like they were unable to stop their leak..😑

I'm surprised it held. I know the area well.

Negligence.. They should have released water gradually beforr to mantain safe levels. BUT THEY GOT THE ORDER TO KEEP LEVELS HIGH. THEN THEY CREATED RAIN AND LOOK AT THIS MESS

You think you got it bad it's 80 degrees and sunny for the next 6 days that's Tuff I'll just have to ride it out

there's just some people out there to make you're job even harder don't not need to stand in the danger zone

Is this one of the Michigan dams?