Remembering the Kelly Barnes Lake Dam Failure, Toccoa, Georgia

Abstract Only - After several days of heavy rain in November of 1977, a small bible college in northeast Georgia experienced a deadly tragedy that had immediate and far-reaching implications related to the governance and regulation of water resource structures. The Kelly Barnes Dam, a 78-year-old structure, failed in the middle of the night, flooding and ravaging Toccoa Falls College. Thirty nine people were killed. Within days, both the Georgia and federal governments lined up panels of subject matter experts and politicians to write rules to regulate dams. It is important to note that Georgia was the home state of the President of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter. Engineering code for heightened dam safety was put on paper and rules for dam safety were defined and became law. The new laws (the Georgia Safe Dams Act and the National Dam Safety Program) were put in place so that the Kelly Barnes disaster or other similar incidents of the 1970s would no longer happen. The National Dam Safety Program provided for inspection of dams across the country. No longer would those living below large dams be at such great risk.
This presentation will discuss some of the events leading up to the failure. Some of the personal accounts of the events that night will also be described showing the impact such a tragedy can have on a community. Members of the Georgia Safe Dams Program recently visited Toccoa Falls College and the original dam site to see what it looks like more than 35 years later.