What caused the St Francis dam to collapse?

An investigation into the disaster concluded that it had been caused primarily by the unsuitability of the San Francisquito rock for supporting a dam and a reservoir. Mulholland was cleared of all charges regarding the dam failure; nevertheless, the disaster ruined his reputation and ended his career.



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Francis Dam was executed solely by the Los Angeles Bureau of Waterworks & Supply under the supervision of the organization's chief engineer William Mulholland. The 1928 failure of the dam which resulted in the deaths of over 400 civilians was attributed to a series of human errors and poor engineering judgment.

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Three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending over 12 billion gallons of water and debris rushing down the Santa Clara River Valley from San Francisquito Canyon to the Pacific Ocean, 54 miles away. In six hours more than 450 people were swept away in the dark and murky waters.

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More than 450 people were killed in the March 1928 St. Francis Dam collapse, a civil engineering failure that unleashed an avalanche of water across Southern California.

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Francis Dam in the San Francisquito Canyon. Nearby these haunting reminders, there is a sign: “On March 12, 1928, just before midnight, it collapsed and sent over twelve billion gallons of water roaring down the valley of the Santa Clara River. Over 450 lives were lost in this, one of California's greatest disasters.”

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A wave of water washed above the lake to Casso and Erto, communities above the reservoir, where the air blast and water destroyed buildings and caused at least 158 fatalities. Five downstream towns were destroyed including Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova, and Fae.

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In 1975 the failure of the Banqiao Reservoir Dam and other dams in Henan Province, China caused more casualties than any other dam failure in history. The disaster killed an estimated 171,000 people and 11 million people lost their homes.

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Charles Lee's map of the flooded area, extending 54 miles from the St. Francis Dam site, through Castaic, Camulos, Filmore, Santa Paula, Saticoy and Montalvo. The smoothed flow distance was 52 miles.

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The January 5, 2023 spillway failure of the North Fork Dam on Pacheco Creek is an unfortunate sign that California has much work to do to ensure dam safety. The North Fork Dam has been a focus of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) since at least 2017.

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World's Biggest Dam Has 'Extremely Dangerous' Low Water Levels. The Kariba Dam between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Water levels at Kariba dam, the world's largest, are at “extremely dangerous” lows that could force a shutdown of its hydro power plants, said Zambian Energy Minister Dora Siliya.

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