A recent article from CNN about the major flooding disaster associated with Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey has a great discussion of how poor city planning, lack of appropriate zoning, and other factors made the city more prone to disastrous flooding (even after changes made following other flooding incidents in recent years). It is crucial for engineers and urban planners to learn from these events and take well-considered and appropriate action to mitigate the impact of future major storms. This is especially true for urban areas dealing with rapid population growth and infrastructure development.

The recent failure (July 26, 2017) of the amusement park ride (the Fireball, manufactured by KMG) was a result of excessive (and apparently undetected) corrosion.

For more information, including some photos of the failed joint and soem interesting comments from workers, see this post.

Corrosion in all its forms is behind many failures, and is especially dangerous where inspection is difficult (for example, between assembled parts or hidden behind cover plates, as in the case of the I-95 Mianus River bridge collapse in Connecticut in 1983. Stress corrosion cracking and fatigue failure in which corrosion can play a role have been responsible for many material failures.