On Monday, February 13 in northern California (United States), local authorities declared a state of emergency due to the risk of a breakout of America's largest dam located on Lake Oroville. Last Saturday, streams of water gushed into the valley. At least 188,000 people were evacuated from dangerous areas. According to estimates of meteorologists in the coming days rains will continue in the dam area. Twelve years ago, environmentalists warned of the possibility of destruction by using backup spillway dam.

August 2005 proved to be truly black month for the state of Louisiana (US): it was hit by hurricane Katrina. The destruction epicenter occurred in New Orleans. The disaster triggered flood that led to the breakthrough of dams. Almost 80% of the city was flooded. The disaster claimed the lives of at least 1,500 Americans.

Eight years ago, at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant located on the Yenisei River (Russian Federation) a man-made catastrophe happened. The sudden destruction of hydraulic unit led to filling its mine with huge volume of water. The engine room was flooded, hydroelectric generators failed due to a short circuit. The victims of the accident were 75 people.

Seven years ago, the long rains caused a dam break on the Fu River (China). About 100,000 people were evacuated from the dangerous area. The disaster led to deaths of about 200 people.

In 2010, there was a breakthrough of the Indus River dam (southern Pakistan). The day before the accident approximately 300,000 people were evacuated. The water claimed the lives of 1,700 people.

Six years ago, a catastrophe on the Qiantang River (China) also caused by the breakthrough of the dam resulted in deaths of 59 people. This affected many tourists who were at the dam and admiring the annual tide bore. Some of them were washed away by a giant wave.