1935 Sella Zerbino dam failure at Molare

On the morning of 13 August, after a heavy rainstorm raised the level of Lake Ortiglieto, the rock sill supporting the secondary dam of the Molare hydroelectric scheme in Piedmont collapsed. The main spillway had clogged with mud and debris and the secondary discharges were not sufficient to prevent both the 47 metre main dam and the 14 metre secondary dam from overtopping. The plant had been built between 1919 and 1925 by the Officine Elettriche Genovesi, and a later study attributes the overtopping to underestimation of the discharge system against the hydrology of the Orba catchment.

Date
1935-08
Deaths (Wikipedia list, low end where it gives a range)
111
What the pin marks
Lake Ortiglieto, the reservoir whose secondary dam at Sella Zerbino failed, as the cited page positions it.
Where the position is published
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ortiglieto

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: italy, hydroelectric, overtopping, rainfall

Coordinates: 44.56917, 8.60389

Part of Dam failures that killed 100 or more people since 1900

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