Witnessings of disasters

Still visible today are the ruins of the Gleno dam in Bergamo, Italy.
Start of building was in 1916 and it was planned a curved gravity dam. For cost reasons, during the construction phase in a brick arch dam was changed. Before this was approved (there were static concerns), the dam was already built and half of the construction costs saved. A construction freeze made by the Italian state was ignored.
Already in 1920 warnings about shortcomings in planning, bad building materials and building bungles were ignored and the critics fired.
On the morning of December 1, 1923, after heavy rainfalls, which filled the dam to the overflow, broke columns and the wall partially collapsed.

Within minutes, an estimated 5,000,000 m³ of water, mud and debris flowed from the reservoir into the valley below. The village of Bueggio was first flooded, followed by a partial flooding of Dezzo, part of the municipality of Azzone, and the complete flooding of Dezzo, a hamlet of Colere and Corna di Darfo. Only Lake Iseo stops the mass of water after about 30 kilometers. At least 356 people (according to other sources up to 600) were killed in the disaster.

Attachments:

Gleno Dam.kmz (700 B)

The big Halifax explosion was already posted in the oGEC.
When on December 6, 1917, the French ammunition freighter MONT BLANC collided with the Norwegian ship IMO, the MONT BLANC, fully laden with about 2,500 tons of explosives, caught fire and exploded at 9:04.
It was one of the most violent non-nuclear explosions in history. It is considered the world's largest accidental man-made explosion, killing up to 2,000 people and injuring 9,000 and razing large parts of Halifax to the ground.
Even today, artifacts can still be seen.
The more than a half-ton anchor shank of the MONT BLANC was about 4 km far and a cannon part about 2 km far flung. Both can still be seen today. In the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic Halifax you can see more parts of the almost completely torn MONT BLANC.
The Halifax City Hall clock is constantly at 9 o'clock and 4 minutes.

And if the saw clamps when cutting old trees in Halifax, it's metal shards...

Attachments:

Halifax Explosion.kmz (155.14 KB)

The Explosion Disaster of Mitholz was a series of heavy explosions in a munitions depot of the Swiss Army above Mitholz in the municipality Kandergrund in Switzerland. The disaster was one of the largest artificial explosions not caused by nuclear weapons.
Nine people were killed in the explosions, seven others were injured. Large parts of the nearby village of Mitholz were devastated, destroyed several residential buildings and the railway station Blausee-Mitholz.

In the course of the establishment of defensive position in the Swiss Alps stocks had to be stored for the army. In Mitholz, between October 1941 and July 1945, a large subterranean ammunition magazine was driven into a rock formation called Fluh.
At the time of the accident, there were about 7,000 tons of ammunition of all kinds in the camp, which at that time was considered one of the most modern such facilities in Switzerland.
At about 11 pm on December 19, 1947, flashes of light and flames were observed coming from the access gallery. A short time later local residents were awakened by loud noises, reminiscent of the decline of avalanches. At 11.30 pm, a first major explosion occurred, with up to 30 m high jet flames shooting from all the entrances. The northern armored door was blown up and smashed the railway station building.
Five minutes later, a second, stronger detonation occurred, 115 km away from the Swiss Seismological Service in Zurich recorded. Thrown ammunition and debris destroyed several buildings. Ten minutes after midnight, the third and most violent explosion occurred, accompanied by 150 m high jet flames. The rock wall of the Fluh, in which the ammunition depot was located, collapsed, releasing about 250,000 m³ of rock.
Tons of boulders were sometimes thrown hundreds of meters away, a bombshell even covered a distance of two kilometers. In a wide radius of debris, splinters and partly burning ammunition residues were distributed.
For days, detonations were heard, and the cleanup was extremely dangerous. All in all, by the end of 1948, just under 500,000 bullets from 20 mm caliber were put together in and around the ammunition magazine - and 1400 tonnes were sunk in Lake Thun. Even today, the greatest caution is needed during construction work there. About 3,000 tons of ammunition are still in the mountain.
During the military investigation, all kinds of possible reasons were investigated. These ranged from sabotage to faulty handling of ammunition, shocks from passing freight trains to radiation from space. It is not cleared up today.

In SV, the partially collapsed rock wall Fluh is clearly visible.

Attachments:

Blausee-Mitholz.kmz (219.48 KB)

In May 2017, in the Russian city of Lebedjan in the Lipetsk region, the roof of a warehouse belonging to PepsiCo, one of the largest fruit juice producers in Russia, collapsed and buried thousands upon thousands of filled packs of fruit juice under itself. Two factory workers who were on the roof were injured.

A wide stream of the sap then flowed down the streetsinto the Don River. See in the video.

Attachments:

Lebedjan Collapse.kmz (788 B)