National Dam Safety Awareness Day
Dam Safety Awareness Day on May 31 every year is in memoriam of the 2,220 people who lost their lives in the 1889 South Fork Dam failure near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The collapse of the South Fork Dam was a tragedy and is not an isolated incident.
Date: May 31, 2024
Important Date
Event Details
Who: FEMA is asking dam owners across the nation to help promote dam safety and the benefits of dams either on May 31 or during that time.
What: National Dam Safety Awareness Day seeks to encourage and promote individual and community responsibility and best practices for dam safety, as well as what steps can be taken to prevent future catastrophic dam failures. A secondary goal is to promote the benefits dams offer to communities.
This year's efforts will be minor, but we would like to share some stakeholder resources in advance of a larger effort we are working towards for 2024.
Why: Dam Safety Awareness Day (May 31) was established to commemorate the failure of the South Fork Dam in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Johnstown disaster was the worst dam failure in the history of the United States, with over 2,200 lives lost.
Event Contact
Alesia Za Gara
alesia.zagara@associates.fema.dhs.gov