Dam Failure Case Study: Big Bay Lake Dam (Mississippi, 2004)

DamFailures.Org is an ASDSO project that provides individual dam failure case studies and lessons learned as a resource for dam safety engineers, dam operators, owners, regulators, managers, academia and students to help prevent future incidents.

On March 12, 2004, the Big Bay Lake Dam in Mississippi failed destroying 48 homes, washing out a bridge, and damaging 53 homes, 2 churches, three businesses and a fire station. Thankfully, no lives were lost. The dam was built in 1990-1991, had a structural height of about 60 to 70 feet, and a normal pool storage capacity of about 11,250 acre feet. Both embankment and foundation soils at the site are comprised of primarily highly erodible silty sand and sandy silt materials. The estimated peak outflow from the breach was approximately 150,000 cubic feet per second.