What would happen if Hoover Dam broke?

Answer 1

Let's say the Hoover dam broke. This is difficult to imagine, given its thickness. No conventional bomb would have an effect on a dam like this. It is difficult to imagine even a nuclear bomb having an effect, unless it was an extremely powerful one and it were inside the dam at the time of explosion. But let's say that some sort of tremendous earthquake or an asteroid strike or some other natural disaster were to somehow crack it in halves. The first thing that would happen is that 10 trillion gallons of water would move as quickly as it could out of the lake and down the river in a huge tsunami of water. The Hoover dam is located in a desert area that is not hugely inhabited below the dam, but there are still some sizeable populations. Lake Havasu City, population 40,000, is about the biggest town in the United States along the river. Bullhead city, population 30,000 is also close to the dam. Needles, California and Laughlin, Nevada all have populations of around 10,000 people as well. Damages to the dam Where the water would do immense damage is in the lakes below Hoover dam. It turns out that below Hoover dam is another large lake called Lake Mohave, which is held in place by Davis dam, and below that is Lake Havasu, held in place by Parker dam. These are smaller lakes and smaller dams. For example, Lake Havasu only holds about 200 billion gallons of water. As the water released by the Hoover Dam moved through these two lakes, it would likely destroy them and their dams as well. That's where the real impact would be felt, because these lakes affect a huge number of people. The water in them produces hydroelectric power, irrigates farmland and supplies drinking water to cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego. The Hoover dam produces roughly 2,000 megawatts of power. Davis and Parker dams produce less, but together they might all produce 3,000 megawatts. That represents about one half of one percent of the total electrical power produced in the United States. If you eliminated a sizable amount of generating capacity like that, especially in that area of the country (near Los Angeles and Las Vegas, for example), it would definitely cause problems. The destruction of irrigation water supplies would also have a huge effect on farming in the region. Farmers in the Imperial Valley get most of their water from the Colorado River, and these irrigation systems would collapse. Prior to irrigation, the Imperial Valley was a barren desert. Today it is the home of more than half a million acres of farmland and produces more than a billion dollars in fruits and vegetables every year. There would be large effects as well from the loss of drinking water. For example, Las Vegas gets 85 percent of its drinking water from Lake Mead -- the lake behind Hoover dam. With the loss of water and the loss of power, Las Vegas would become uninhabitable, and that would displace 1.5 million residents and empty more than 120,000 hotels rooms and the casinos, bringing the multi-billion-dollar gambling industry in this city to a halt.

Answer 2

Massive amounts of flooding, cities like Las Vegas would become inhabitable, countless lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed, people jobless, streams and lakes getting overflowed, and government would have to repay the damages. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The water would flood Nevada Arizona California with at least ten feet of water each. And the Colorado river would be massive we would have no water to provide for California and Nevada and Arizona. All of the electricity would get knock out from the water.we would have to evacuate the states.the hoover dam has never flooded. And hopefully it never does

Answer 4

the lower Colorado river would flood annually killing many, destroying land, property and crops