Wisconsin is seeing more frequent dam failures in another sign that the storms blowing through the state are growing stronger.
Wisconsin recorded 34 dam failures from 2000 through 2023, the second-highest total for that period behind only South Carolina, the Wisconsin Policy Form said in a report released Thursday. More than 80 percent of the failures—28, to be exact—happened since the start of 2018, and 18 of those happened since the start of 2020. None of the failures resulted in human deaths, the report found.
The state is home to more than 4,000 dams. Some are massive hydroelectric constructs while others are small earthen dams that create farm ponds. They’re owned by a mix of companies, individuals, government and tribal entities, and utilities….