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St. Francis Dam disaster, catastrophic dam failure in California on March 12, 1928, that remains one of the worst civil engineering failures in American history. The ensuing flood killed hundreds and swept away thousands of acres of fertile land. The St. Francis Dam was completed in 1926 in San Francisquito Canyon, about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Los Angeles, under the supervision of William Mulholland, manager and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Bureau...