Watch these runaway barges hit the Webbers Falls dam | FOX23 News Tulsa 

Thank you for this dam video.

It is so nice not to have someone in the background yelling OMG OMG OMG!

CNN reporter: Mostly no barges hit the dam.

Excellent visual lesson on the power of flowing water. You can be looking at a river that, on the surface, seems so calm. Almost still. But in the middle, just a few feet under that surface, there’s a raging current that will...well, suck a barge under.

Great engineering,didnt even blink.Those wedge entrance pillars were very amazing design.

It's like watching an engine block go through one of those metal shredding machines!

What did the runaway barge say when it hit the wall? Dam!

I hate to barge in here like this, but frankly, I don't give a dam.

Someone should investigate as to why the barges decided to runaway. Were they mistreated at home?

Was not expecting it to flip over!

The power of water. Holy smokes.

FYI, when the Keystone Lake is releasing at almost 300 thousand cubic feet of water a second, which it was for several days, and the Arkansas River is running at near historic flood levels a tug is not going to be able to catch and restrain barges that have broken away from their moorings.

I was working on the Mississippi River on a tow boat in the mid 60s. A couple of kids, a girl and her brother were in a small ski boat that lost power above a dam as they were crossing the river not far upriver from a dam, it was one like this, a coffer dam and it was running water. Before anyone realized what was going on they were swept in just like the barges. Lots of power in moving water, the water the dam is letting though is going under the gates that are raised so the undertow is really strong. A fully loaded barge carries about 1,500 tons and the barge itself about 700 tons. I wonder if the barges folded up and jammed into the gates so that they couldn't totally close which would make it really difficult to get the wreckage out.

Where is the film of them being recovered?

Barge Pilot: I swear i parked them right here.

I love the countdown like we're at NASA

That moment when you realize that you started your countdown too soon - "Ok, here we go. 5, 4, 3, 2.... 1..... wait for it........ and we're gonna have impact......... rightttttttt now."

That is one hell of a river flow

(musical tone) Two runaway barges on the Arkansas River, One runaway barge on the Arkansas River, No runaway barge on the Arkansas River

Interesting video. It would have been better if there had been some explanation of how the barges got loose, what was on them, was the dam damaged little-much-beyond hope.

It will take several tug boats and really good steel cables to remove the barge wreckage. Once the water level is lower.

They just can't barge in here like that.

Someone's insurance company sure felt the pain from that!!!!!!!!!

Praise and respect Mother Nature

Legend has it this is a great place to go magnet fishing

Dam that’s a strong dam

That dam must be really strong

Webbers falls isn't too far from where I live. I remember this

Huston we’ve landed !

Well, someone is getting fired...

I totally didn't expect them to sink!

I fish the Mississippi River around huge barges I can just imagine the power of all that TON of steel getting pushed like toys

Most satisfying video I ever saw!

This shows the water is relentless, powerful and predictable.......

Cleetus! I thought you tied it off!

Corona virus 'stay at home' brought me here. It was interesting.

I think our engineers need to go to Michigan to rebuild Sanford & Edenville dams; ours had barges run into them and nothing broke.

How much ferilizer did that dump inn the river? what kind was it?

they need to build a series of islands 300 yards out from the dam to stop barges from hitting the dam again

LOL at the goober counting down

Any updates? Did they clear the dam jam?

Wow! The way the dam ate the first barge is unbelievable.

Dam good video

Any videos on the barge wreckage removal at this dam?

we seem to be short 2 barges, DAM

Runaway floating barge could damage dam .divert other side.

If they are Allis Chalmers turbines, they would grind the barge up and send it down stream

Great video. 💙 T.E.N.

Amazing how the dam stood up to such force.

That current is dam powerful tap tap boom😉

They went down fast

That certainly poses a problem on clearing up the debris.

Saw this, where the view was where you could see the hit, and the barge sink. Close ups showed the sinking and other possible damage to the dam.

Was there any damage to the dam?

Why did they not close the sleuces to stop the flow and therefore mitigate drawing in the barges?

Over a decade ago ACBL had a barge loaded with powered concrete sunk right in the pier in Lemont, Ill...they had to dynamite it into pieces to get it out.... But this here....looking at a lot of underwater cutting whenever the river levels off

Es mucho trouble, thanks. 😎🚢🚢

well the big issue is the all barge wreckage blocking up flow through at least 2 gates reducing the amount of flood water flow downstream if the river flow is high enough it will pile water up on the upstream side and can over top the dam

Title should be runaway barges hit dam, with Nasa engineer commenting in background.

How rude. To barge in like that

I remember this like it was last year

Ain’t that a dam shame?

Fortunately, they hit the Dam instead of striking the Locks. That would have put the Arkansas River out of the shipping business for months or years.

Anyone going over that dam...their best bet would probably be to try to grab onto the metal supports for the dam on the way down. They're on either side of each gate and they could at least climb up out of the water. There is also a concrete base block at the bottom in between each gate to try to grab onto and lift yourself up.

Those barges are nothing compared to the force of that water. What did you think was going to happen?

Water is such a powerful thing.

This is a lot like 11 foot 8...

Gilligan, did you use one of your sailor's knots?

I just love watch disaster in slow motion. Its like reliving my last break up. The guy counting down is feeling very important at the moment, like his intire life has built up to this event. The random lady yelling oh my God probably wasn't even watching. She noticed the hobo rubbing one out in the woods behind the news van, those silly hobos. My deepest question, why is there not a food truck an some nice classic rock to commemorate this day?

This I think is the recent flooding from all the rain in the past couple of weeks if I'm not mistaken. So it makes me think if at some time they ever get back to a low flow time I would think that they would some how try to remove them somehow. That will be the video I'm going to want to see even more than this one. This was a very nice catch and I wasn't sure if it would sink a larger vessel such as these two barges but as we see they are no match for the incredible power of water! One of gods strongest forces on earth!

Nature, never one to shy away from demonstrating the hubris of the human species.

No watered down comments please.

Price of Fruity Pebbles just went up!!!!😂

Whoever owns that dam should be finding out exactly who owns those barges. The barge owner has some explaining as to why the barges got away with no attempt to restraint them.

Wondering if they're going to try to retrieve them or just leave it submerged?

Wow!

THE RED ONE WAS IN THE LEAD, BUT SUDDENLY VANISHED FROM THE RACE.

Well somebody done f&*×ed up

Dam wins!! Fatality!!

Someone is SOOOO FIRED..!

Barges get loose off upriver tugs all the time and NO ONE ever chases them down or beaches them!! They are just left to crash into what ever...the tugs don't notify anyone that there are barges lose and coming down stream. A loose barge hit a railbridge and offset the rails. The. City of New Orleans train ( like in the 1960s song) was the next train over that bridge and detrailed into the river. Killed all the crew and most of the passengers and destroyed the engine. No one ever tracked down where the barge came from or why no one notified the rail road that the bridge had been hit.

Countdown guy should have used metric.

I was expecting chunks of the barge to start spitting out the other side, what happened?

DAMN!

And they squawk about the damage to the Suez canal by a ship going crossways. This has the potential to be a lot more destructive . Fortunately I thing the engineer who did the design had such a potential in mind from the outset.

This was no accident!

I fished below this dam take plenty of sinkers because you will get hung up on every throw!!!

Like they went through one of those giant industrial shredders. Wow.

They never popped out the other side!

Looks like the barges were racing!

What did the Barge say when it hit a wall ?...............DAM !

I know the river was reaching flood stage. But reducing the flow of water at least on that one side. would have reduced the impact significantly. And may have saved the barges and cargo. And saved millions in having to recover the barges and cargo.

Gonna need post10 to fix that clog

Thing was moving fast to.

Hungry Hungry Hippo Dam

Did they get them out?

It was a mostly peaceful impact

' what are 2 things inside the barges

Was there anyone driving that barge

Why wouldn't they shut the gates to stop the flow of water for a bit? Could they?