Hi JimE   .....   I agree with you.  I lived in Frejus for years and people still talk about this disaster. The dam was less than 5 years old.

http://perfectlyprovence.co/visit-frejus-malpasset-dam-tragedy/

I've transferred your message to The Bench cam so that it's safe.  I don't want to miss your vacation.  I really do hope the cam is back by then.

Hi MD and Homely,  In my humble opinion there is no such thing as a completely safe dam or mine!  I have seen many mines all over the world and the environmental chaos they cause.  MD, not sure if you saw my message on Hula Daddy's page before it too went the way of the dinosaurs?  Anyway that's my two cents concerning mines and dams....  remember 'It's not nice to fool Mother Nature'! (old TV advertisement from the 70's)

Hi Ed .....  yes. I must remember to look again later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajiralongkorn_Dam

http://teakdoor.com/central-thailand-forum/197700-vajiralongkorn-rama-x-dam-hydro-electric.html

http://www.bangkokpost.com/travel/sightseeing/22149/vajiralongkorn-dam

http://www.egat.co.th/en/information/power-plants-and-dams?view=article&id=61

Yes. You can see a lot on this webcam.

So clear.

Got to be one of my favourites.......

I just watched a scooter drive across that dam. It took him forever.

Its either a long dam or very slow scooter.

Aaaand... the floor is STILL there, but I had a lovely day off ;-)

Homely.... I wondered what you were doing on here at this time! Enjoy a day with friends..... that floor will still be there later. Have a lovely day.  :D

MD - I had completely forgotten about Aberfan. When we studied Buffalo Creek, we also examined the Aberfan case. Just awful.

While I am so fortunate to have been born into a free part of the world and benefit from all that is capitalism, it does have a dark underbelly. Both of these cases expose it to the light. Both were completely avoidable tragedies that happened because it was more expensive to do things in a safer manner. 

I'm taking a hard earned day off today. We were going to go refinish the floors in our old house today so it could be put on market this weekend, but we just found out our Brit friends also took the day off. I see a beer garden in my future, as it is a beautiful day here today!

Cheers!

Hi Homely.... I Googled the Buffalo creek Disaster. Just awful... so sad. It reminded me of the Aberfan Disaster, another coal mine fiasco. It took 5 minutes for a hillside of coal waste to flow down and engulf houses and a school. The hill just slid. I remember it very clearly. A generation of children wiped out.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/this-is-tragedy

Hi, MD - Makes me think of the Buffalo Creek Disaster, which was made into a book that I had to read in one of my Political Science or prelaw classes in college. It's a real story - a coal mining company in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia was laying out all of their scree and shale into a makeshift dam above a mining town and it clogged the creek, Buffalo Creek. I can't recall if the intent was to make a dam or if it was just a result of the coal waste dumping, but ultimately the dam broke and took out a whole town and a huge lawsuit was the result. And the surviving townspeople won. I actually found it to be a fascinating case. I bet if you google it you can find out a lot about it.

But anyway, ever since reading that book, I can't look at a dam without fearing for the folks who live beneath it...

H

Homely, makes me think of The Dambusters film and the carnage that caused when the dam was breached. Of course, the film doesn't go into that.

Really interesting perspective from this cam, seeing all that water towering over the flat lands below (Hi Kyle!).

I would say, this was necessary, but bet it displaced at least half a million people or more, the largest displacement ever was the Chinese dam project, more that 4 million was displaced and quite a few hectares of farm land went under as well, but dont judge, that river in China killed a lot of people every year, just too many was in danger

Never seen this one before