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Waves of Devastation is the seventh episode of season two of Life After People: The Series. It originally aired on February 16, 2010.

Synopsis[]

The relentless power of water where it threatens to wipe out everything in its path and erase mankind's greatest masterpieces, with the waves of devastation arrives from Rotterdam, which washes away the treasures of Boijmans Museum, Santa Monica near Los Angeles, where the Santa Monica Pier sinks into the ocean, and Sacramento, with the failure of the levees and the dam burst from the Folsom Dam. Invasive oil spreads across Valdez and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline fails while the non-native species Asian carp slip through the human-made barriers into the Great Lakes where it compete against the invasive sea lamprey. Salt air seeps into Sydney where the Sydney Opera House caves in and the Sydney Harbour Bridge tears apart. The episode explores the former Soviet coal mining town of Pyramiden on the Svalbard archipelago which was abandoned in 1998 and could outlast Earth's greatest cities.

Plot[]

Prologue[]

Man always struggled to hold back and harness the raw power of water on a planet where more than 70% of the surface is covered by the oceans, lakes, & rivers and it's a never ending battle. With man disappeared, the raging force is ready to break free along the planet's more than 2,200 miles of coastline and millions of miles of waterways.

1 Day After People[]

In the California State Capitol at Sacramento, where an action hero once came to preside over the 8th largest economy in the world, there's a watery disaster that is about big enough to rival any Hollywood blockbuster. In 2005, the world saw the water's devastating effects when the storm surges from Hurricane Katrina overpowered the manmade levees, destroying much of New Orleans. Sacramento has many of the same vulnerabilities because every winter and spring, heavy rains & runoff from melting snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains turned the rivers in low lying Sacramento into the deadly torrents. Jeffrey Mount is standing at the confluence of the American River and the Sacramento River and explains that the two rivers are entirely encased by levees which are placed tight against the river and the reason why Sacramento is the most at-risk city in the United States. However raging water isn't the only villain in the developing disaster because there are thousands of accomplices already working to make the impending disaster bigger. Jeffrey Mount stated that the rodents are the nemesis of the levees from ground squirrels that make networks of burrows to the beavers, the worst of them all. Animal tunnels were believed to be one of the main cause of a levee failure in the town of Fernley near Reno in 2008. The raging water flooded 600 homes and caused an estimated 4 million dollars of damage. Sacramento levees share a dangerous flaw with the infernally because the earthen levees were originally built by farmers more than 100 years ago. Without repairs by human crews, it won't take long for the water to find a way through.

Across the planet in the Netherlands, more than a quarter of the country is below sea level. 60% of the population during, about 10 million people, lived in the vulnerable areas during the time of humans and because of the threat, the Dutch built an amazingly advanced flood defense system. After people, Rotterdam is empty. In the Boijmans Museum, works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and other Dutch masters worth million of dollars still hang on the wall but the building sits less than 10 feet above sea level along with a massive storm surge barrier between Rotterdam and the North Sea, which holds the key to the city's survival.

2 Days After People[]

In the United States, the port of Valdez, Alaska is eerily quiet. In the time of humans, tankers came to Valdez to fill up with oil, flowed 800 miles inside of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. If laid out in the lower 48 states, it would stretch from Chicago to Dallas and the manmade river of oil is pumped from Alaska's north slope, across 3 mountain ranges and 34 major rivers, to the holding tanks in Valdez with 380 million gallons of oil inside the pipeline at any given time. William Leffler stated at its peak, the pipeline moves about 2 million barrels a day of oil down the pipeline and because of the production on the North Slope has declined, it moves about 700,000 barrels a day down the line. The hum of the pump stations along the pipeline stops and their fuel & electricity runs out.

However, the gurgling sound of moving liquid can still be heard in Valdez. The oil travels from a storage tank several hundred feet in elevation above the waterline to one of the tankers below, where the river of oil breaks free. Tom Miesner stated that if the ship were loading, it would continue to load the tank's gravity feed down to the ship which would continue to run and potentially cause one of the tanks on the ship to overflow. Millions of gallons of black death drain into the harbor but the tens of thousands of birds and marine mammals near Valdez have witnessed before. The Exxon Valdez disaster a few lies off shore in Prince William's Sound in 1989 spilled 11 million gallons of oil. After 2 days, the overflowing tanker drowns the harbor with twice as much oil but as hundreds of millions more gallons sit in the 800 miles of pipeline, another disaster awaits.

2,800 miles away near Chicago, a dangerous fish continues its shocking invasion. In the time of humans, along the vast stretches of the Mississippi River and it's tributaries are the non-native Asian carp, which terrorized people by hurling themselves out of the water whenever boats came near. Phil Moy stated that they heard many times about people being injured down on the Illinois River by broken jaws, broken clavicles, knocked unconscious, and knocked off their jet ski or personal watercraft while changing the way people able to recreate on the rivers. The plant-eating Asian carp were brought over from Asia beginning in the 1960's by catfish farmers looking for a cheap and safe way to keep their ponds clean but in 1980's, the carp began escaping during floods and started heading north where it makes their way into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which leads to Lake Michigan. Man feared that if the Asian carp made it into the Great Lakes, it would kill off the desirable fish by devouring their food supply and so mankind made it's last stand against the Asian carp at the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Fish approaching the part of the canal are in for a shock cause by a series of virtual fences built by the Army Core of Engineers which creates an electric current in the water. Chuck Shea stated that if a fish approaches, the further it goes into the barrier, the larger the electric shock it feels and some point in time, the fish will realize it's getting worse as it move forward so it turns around and goes back to the way it came. But when the power goes out, the episode questions will anything stop the invasion of the Asian carp.

1 Week After People[]

Half a world away in Australia sits one of the most iconic buildings on the planet, the Sydney Opera House. The 4 and a half acre building used as much electricity as a town of 25,000 people during the time of humans. The 160,000 ton building appears to float at the edge of the harbor is actually held up by 580 reinforced pilings which is sunk up to 82 feet below sea level and hosted about 3,000 events a year. After people, there is only just one final long running show, the slow decay of the building itself. The one causes the most damage are the salty water of Sydney Harbor which attacks the reinforced concrete pilings and the most vulnerable area is known as the splash zone. Tanya Komas stated that in the splash zone where it have repeated wet and dry cycles, the worst conditions are present because it have the sulfates attacking the cement paste on the outside and the chlorides that come in contact with oxygen which helps corrosion on the steel. The building is best known for it's iconic roof and for after people, the soaring ceramic tile covered shells at the top of the Sydney Opera House are well sealed from the salty harbor air, but a design feature made the elegantly curved shapes possible holds the secret to the future.

At Chicago, outside a nondescript building along the industrial canal, emergency generators have kept the electric barriers buzzing. But after a week without people, the generators have consumed their last drop of fuel and for the Asian carp, the pathway to the Great Lakes is wide open. In the coming days after people, it will begin heading towards Chicago and a vast new feeding around in Lake Michigan.

1 Month After People[]

Coastlines around the world have gone dark and moonlight casts an eerie glow over the oceans. However, in the surf of Los Angeles is the strange lights twinkle in the sea. On the Santa Monica Pier, the Ferris Wheel still blazes with 1,600 thousand LED lights, which was first installed in 2008 and flash with computer controlled design that can be seen from more than 10 miles. Eric Broekse stated that the Ferris Wheel is run on solar power and as long as the solar panels are active, it can keep powering the LED lights. After people, the episode questions how long will the light show last and how long will the pier to withstand the relentless pounding of the waves.

Across the Atlantic in the Netherlands, evidence of people's long struggle to control water is all around from small levees and quaint windmills, to massive coastal barriers with the largest barriers, some equipped with huge metal storm surge gates, were built after a devastating flood in 1953. Billy Edge explains that in the storm of 1953, 2,000 people were drowned, 10,000 buildings were flooded and damaged, and a tremendous amount of devastation to the infrastructure. Rotterdam is one of the most vulnerable Dutch cities. Near the city's center are the priceless works by Rembrant and Van Gogh that is still hanging in the Boijmans Museum that is just a few feet above sea level. Nearby, 2 massive flood gates protected the city by shutting out any storm surges from the North Sea in the time of humans, and the gates are some of the largest moving structures on Earth with each gate is 70 feet high and almost 700 feet long. The gates are connected to the enormous ball joints by steel trusses that are so massive that it almost as if 2 Eiffel Towers had been re-engineered to move the mammoth. But after people and as a new storm slams ashore, the gates sit idle and Rotterdam fills with water from 2 directions. Billy Edge stated that rivers are flowing to the North Sea causing the surge to raise the elevation of the water in the North Sea and the rainwater has no place to go and just continues to raise higher. The water then infiltrates the Boijmans museum and washes away some of mankind's greatest cultural treasures.

1 Year After People[]

Near Chicago, the electric barriers keeping the Asian carp out of Lake Michigan is long gone. The carps seriously injured people by panicking and jumping out of the water anytime boats came nearby in the time of humans and after people, the electric barrier has been gone for almost a year and yet the marine invaders still haven't taken over the lake because there are other man-made barriers still blocking the way to the Great Lakes, the largest fresh water system in the world, and the main gate is the Chicago Harbor Lock which is designed to let the boats pass while keeping the Chicago River from flowing into Lake Michigan. The two sets of gates reach all the way to the bottom that is 35 feet below. Gregory Vejvoda stated that the lock gates are 71 years old and made out of steel especially riveted steel and below the waterline, the lock gates are in a very stable environment because of the freshwater which are tend to be in good shape but roughly below the water line by just past the waterline as close to the air are parts that tend to corrode. The Asian carp are turned back at the gates for the moment.

3 Years After People[]

In Sacramento, there is no action movie star to come to the rescue because the city is on the verge of a blockbuster disaster. Without maintenance, the earthen levees are threatening to burst especially at a neighborhood south of downtown known as The Pocket where it is vulnerable. Kevin Knuuti explains that the houses in The Pocket are extremely close to the levee and in some places, it right up against the levee on one side and they don't have much land on the water side so the water is right up against the levee on the other side. As the river level rises during a winter rainstorm, the first signs of water come from below and not from above. Kevin Knuuti explains that one way the levees fail is if the water seeps underneath the levee and the land has a much coarser material under the levee that allows water to seep through easily. Water bubbles up near the homes and without maintenance crews to shore up the weak spots, disaster strikes. Kevin Knuuti stated that the water lubricates the area underneath the levee which makes the material that can slide on and the entire levee could slide landward where it would have such a massive amount of water flowing through very quickly causing the houses near the levee to be completely wiped out and ripped from the foundations. In other areas of Sacramento, water overtops the levees and breaches quickly spread.

North of downtown, Sacramento International Airport is inundated by more than 10 feet of water. Jeffrey Mount stated that the water would be over the wings of the airplanes and one might see the tail sticking out. The downtown area is more elevated but there's about 5 feet of water surrounding the California State Capitol.

For the dogs that managed to survive the first 3 years after people, the disaster presents a deadly challenge for those with certain physical traits. Hurricane Katrina killed or left homeless an estimated 600,000 animals including thousands of dogs in 2005, and many were trapped inside the houses which flooded. For the dogs with short limbs or barrel chests, the chances of survival were very slim. Elena Gretch stated that the good example is the bulldog because it have oversized heads and chests & are a flat-faced dog with a reduced respiratory system so it's unusual for a bulldog to exercise in long distances or swim for long distances. After 3 years, with most of Sacramento being underwater, mixes of retrievers, labs, and other well proportioned swimming dogs adapt to the city's repeated floods but for the other specialized breeds, it'll be wiped out.

Back in Chicago, the non-native Asian carp is still trying to enter Lake Michigan at the Chicago Harbor Lock. The fish were viewed as such a menace by mankind and officials tried to eradicate it by pouring poison into the canal where it lived in 2009 and it is enough to kill 200,000 pounds of fish. After 3 years, passing through the 133 ton steel barriers would make the Asian carp finally rule the Great Lakes, the largest fresh water system on the planet and after several changes of the season, a weakness in the center of the Chicago Harbor Lock is providing an opening. Gregory Vejvoda stated that the things that would break down first would be the rubber seals because ice causes a lot of damage and rips the seals off without much of an effort at all. With the seals fail, thousands of smaller Asian carp stream through the 6 inch gap and went into the lake with it's enormous food supply. Each female capable of carrying 2 and a half million eggs at a time and the episode questions would be anything left on the Great Lakes that can stop the marauding invader.

4 Years After People[]

In Sydney Harbour near the Sydney Opera House, trouble is brewing for another engineering marvel, the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nicknamed the Coat Hanger by locals, it is one of the tallest steel arch bridges in the world and was made with the special ability to expand and contract that allow the bridge to towers 430 feet above the harbor water. In Australia's extreme heat, the steel arch expands to grow a foot taller during the day and shrinking back to size at night. But after 4 years, the strong sun and salty air of Sydney Harbour have shown the signs of corrosion on the Sydney Harbour Bridge everywhere and corrosion in one particular area could doom the massive structure. The hinges allow the bridge to grow taller and are at each end of the massive single arch, but corrosion would soon cause the hinges to lock together and what happen if the bridge loses it's ability to expand and contract.

Back in Lake Michigan, a year after the Asian carp began streaming in haven't taken over as expected because an ancient threat was waiting, the sea lampreys. The sea lamprey is a jawless fish that attaches to it's prey and suck out the blood and other bodily fluids. It entered the Great Lakes when Lake Erie was connected to the Saint Lawrence Seaway which cause enormous efforts to keep the sea lamprey from devastating the fishing population during the time of humans. Phil Moy stated that the Great Lakes Fishing Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service spend about $16 to $19 million annually controlling the numbers of the sea lampreys and when the control went away, the numbers increase greatly. Instead of taking over the Great Lakes, the Asian carp come face to face with the sea lamprey and for years, people tried to control which types of fish thrived in the Great Lakes, two species, accidentally introduced by humans, have taken over and war wages from the Great Lakes.

10 Years After People[]

Act 1[]

On the Pacific Coast near Los Angeles, the famous solar powered Ferris Wheel on Santa Monica Pier is still lighting up the night but during the day, the pounding the pier has taken over the years is showing. Maintenance crews constantly replaced the damaged deck plants during the time of humans. Eric Broeske stated that after 10 years, the deck would deteriorate and the building would sink but the elevation of the buildings sinking through the pier is not all at once but by little by little and the buildings would sink through the pier. After 10 years, the nightly light show from the Ferris Wheel comes to an end. However, the solar panels and most of the LED lights would be expected to last 20 to 25 years but after a decade without maintenance, the system's inverter which converts the solar power's DC current into usable AC electricity finally fails and the Ferris Wheel turns dark.

The failed levees of Sacramento created a catastrophic flood on a scale matching Hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans 3 years after people, but after 10 years, an even greater wave of devastation looms just 20 miles away at the Folsom Dam, where the water level is dangerously high. Without people, the 1950s era dam has accumulated silt and debris around the floodgate with water being 400 feet higher in elevation than Sacramento and a winter storm dumping water in faster than it can flow out. Kevin Knuuti stated that if the dam overtopped, the water flowed around the sides of the dam causing it to erode the abutments to the dam and likely result in a failure of the dam. As the churning storm waters erode the earthen sides of the Folsom Dam, it pull down the rest of the structure and the avalanche of water and debris would reach Sacramento. Kevin Knuuti stated that the remaining levees would be completely destroyed and overtopped, water would flow through the entire city of Sacramento, and all infrastructure within the city would be completely destroyed. At the Sacramento International Airport, the rushing waves cause the decaying planes to turn into projectiles that would slam into the surrounding buildings in the vicinity of the airport.

Act 2[]

Water is taking a toll on coastal cities around the world with a few exceptions, because a mysterious town abandoned 10 years ago reveal which cities remain standing in a life after people and of towns with more than a few hundred people, Pyramiden, on the Norwegian Island of Svalbard.

Pyramiden[]

Visiting Pyramiden, 10 years after people may reveal that the abandoned town to remain standing after people. Steinar Aksnes and Steven S. Ross explores the abandoned town and explain its history. Pyramiden used to be the northernmost town on Earth and it's just 800 miles from the North Pole. Reaching the town requires an epic journey from a 4 hour flight north from Oslo and another 4 hours through the choppy and cold Arctic sea. However, for those adventurous enough to reach Pyramiden, the dangers didn't end cause any group going ashore must be armed with a rifle to fend off polar bear attacks. Steinar Aksnes stated that the last polar bear attack is in 1995 when two different people got killed in two different locations making the town very dangerous. Being 500 miles north of the Norwegian mainland, between the chilling waves and sharp mountain peaks lies the abandoned Cold War-era Soviet mining town. Steven S. Ross is sitting in the town square and explains that 1,400 people lives in the town until 1998. He then explains that it was an active coal mine, the Russians bought Pyramiden from the Swedes in 1927 and still own it, and it was called Pyramiden Coal Mine or Pyramids because the mountain peaks take the shape of pyramids. For the workers and their families, life in Pyramiden was one of structured isolation. Steinar Aksnes stated that the workers had six days working week, normally had some days off, did it for two years, eat at the mess hall, and have everything needed at the town.

Beyond Lenin's gaze in the town square are the abandoned buildings sit frozen in time. No families to enter or leave the once crowded dormitories, no workers to use the industrial machinery, and no one to use the sports equipment still standing in the gymnasium next to the dried tiles of the indoor pool. There's still coal in the mountains but retrieving it proved more trouble than it was worth. Steven S. Ross stated that the people left because it was no longer economically feasible to mine the coal because the coal mine and the seam of the coal was way up near the top of the peaks and was a fairly thin seam of coal causing the Russians to not make a commercial business out of it and closed it down. The empty buildings are waging their own cold war for survival in the frigid Arctic climate, but there are certain advantages to being in the land of the polar bears like the arctic temperatures preserving the man-made structures. Steven S. Ross stated that time slows down like food in the freezer and deterioration rate slows down and while it doesn't stop, it slows down greatly. Even though Pyramiden is right by the shore, the low temperatures keep most of the moisture out of the air. Steven S. Ross stated that in a temperate climate, water gets into buildings where it freezes, expands, crack the building system, walls, and bricks which allow mold to grow, fungi, and the plant themselves while in Pyramiden, it happen over decades rather than a few years and the buildings have not been occupied since 1998 but in almost perfect condition. The exploration concluded with questions from the episode being how long the abandoned mining village last and it's possible that Pyramiden would be the last town on Earth. Steven S. Ross answers the questions by showing the building and stated that 200, 300, to 400 years after would make the building still recognizable and not recognizable as a building in a temperate climate. He continues that it would be little pile of rubble that an archaeologist maybe coming from another planet that would dig through and find there was once a building.

50 Years After People[]

The devastating waves of a winter storm are tearing into a crumbling Santa Monica Pier. The solar powered Ferris Wheel lighting system stopped working 4 decades ago and 50 years after people, the rest of the rusting wheel is in trouble. Powerful waves and strong winds wipe away most of the Ferris Wheel but the A-frame shaped base remains because it's the same principle behind the longevity of the Egyptian pyramids, being a wide base and a narrow top makes an incredibly sturdy design. Eric Broeske stated that even if the Ferris Wheel is destroyed, the A-frame would be in the Santa Monica Pier for 100 years because its a stout structure and very strong in the shape of the triangle.

75 Years After People[]

In Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Opera House is becoming unstable. Hundreds of feet above the crumbling pilings in the harbor, the moist and salty are slowly eaten away at the building's signature shell. The iconic roof was built using an innovative technique that made the curved shapes strong, a system known as precast and prestressed. Tanya Komas stated that the cables are laid in a setting area stretched as much as 6 inches over 100 feet and as soon as the concrete has cured to the design's strength, the cables are cut that happen to much like a rubber band where if one stretch it and let go, it want to snap back together. After 75 years, the stretching technique that give the shells the strength is working against the survival. Tanya Komas stated that the steel cable would be under pressure which cause it to snap and if it snap, it'll add pressure and force from the area of the building to another. As the cable snaps, an entire shell quickly rips itself apart and as it slam down onto the deck, the pilings most exposed to the salty water fail causing the rest of the Sydney Opera House to collapse towards the harbor and one of the most iconic buildings in the world headed down under.

100 Years After People[]

Within sight of where the Sydney Opera House once stood, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is nearing its own end as the aging steel is under tremendous stress. The hinges at each end of the arch once allowed the bridge to expand during the hot Australian days but it became corroded and locked long ago. The pressure from the seized hinges and severe corrosion finally cause a cascade of crumbling supports and the center-deck of Sydney Harbour Bridge collapses into Sydney Harbour.

200 Years After People[]

Inland sections of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline have corroded slowly in the cold climate of Alaska and it takes more than rusting steel top open the pipeline. Many of the elevated sections of the pipeline and the supports were designed not only to withstand the elements but also strong Alaskan earthquakes in the time of humans. 200 years after people, the corroding structures are vulnerable. Alan W. Pense stated that if the pipeline is in line of the earthquake, it won't survive since it going to have cracks and when it occurs, it'll spill everything out. But because the pieces of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline are in one of the coldest parts of the world and away from the devastating effects of water, it may be some of the last remains of man. Alan W. Pense stated that the pipeline would be one of the log-lasting artifacts of people left behind and he did a calculation that if it had a really low corrosion rate, many of the steel parts would last for over 2,000 years to 2,500 years.

500 Years After People[]

Cities in temperate climates have virtually disappeared as it crumbled and became overgrown by plants and trees. However, the abandoned mining town of Pyramiden, on a Norwegian island just 800 miles from the North Pole, is still recognizable.

Epilogue[]

Due to the cold and dried climate, Pyramiden is one of the best preserved towns on the planet, unlike many places where water has unleashed its destructive power.

Transcript[]

Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.

Errors[]

  • Operahouseunder

    The Sydney Opera House still standing in 100 years segment.

    Despite the collapse of the Sydney Opera House in 75 years segment, the structure can be seen in the background of Sydney Harbour Bridge (forward view), similarly tarnished (as seen previously/during the collapse sequence).
  • The collapse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge looks stale and the rest of the bridge didn't react to its collapse, such as the seized hinges that hold up the span and arch. Instead, the bridge is left strangely dangling in the air while the center section crumbles into the river.

Trivia[]

  • Waves of Devastation is similar to Waters of Death in terms of the contents and the topic.
  • Waves of Devastation is the first and only episode to have an abandoned locale explored in the episode to reappear in the timeline, being Pyramiden.

Gallery[]

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