Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant,
filled with waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like.
In today's video, we're gonna go over three wildly different stories.
One is about a fate that is manmade,
one is about fate that was created by nature,
and the final is a horrifying combination of the two
and should be a lesson that not all things should be done even if they can be.
As always, viewer discretion is advised.
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Evgeny Kobytev was born on December 25th, 1910, in the small village of Altai
in what is modern-day Central Russia.
He would go on to enter and graduate from pedagogical school or teaching school
and then become a teacher in the rural areas north of his hometown.
But despite his work as a teacher, his real passion was for art.
Specifically, he loved to paint portraits of people and create panoramas of real life.
So to make his dream of becoming a full-time artist of reality, he enrolled in the state art institute.
He went on to do exceptionally well and then graduated with honors in 1941,
ready to live out his dream.
Unfortunately, shortly after his graduation, the Soviet Union was attacked by Germany
and officially pulled into World War II.
Evgeny, a Soviet citizen, wanted to do his part for the cause in his country
and so he voluntarily enlisted and was placed in a local artillery regimen.
From then on, he traveled around with his regimen, participating in different conflicts.
Then in 1941, during one of those conflicts, he was wounded and captured
and sent to a notorious prisoner of war facility.
This specific facility would see close to a hundred thousand casualties during its operation.
It was built on the ruins of an old brick factory, but during the time Evgeny was imprisoned there,
it was just a single barracks that was barely standing.
At any one point in time, there were over 60,000 people held there
and only a few at a time could take shelter from the cold and rain.
In his time as prisoner, as with most of these facilities, there was minimal food,
disease, poor hygiene, and many other horrific conditions.
Incredibly though, two years later in 1943, he managed to escape from the facility
and rejoin the army.
He then went on to participate in operations all across Europe in the ongoing war effort.
Now, one of the big technological revolutions at the start of World War I was better artillery.
The advancements made it possible to fire larger shells and fire them faster and further.
This made artillery one of the key pieces of battle during World War I
and meant that traditional trenches were no longer safe.
Artillery was so powerful and the pieces were so numerous
that each side would engage in an almost constant barrage.
This led the notorious trench warfare that characterized the battles of World War I.
Over time, trenches became deeper and more sophisticated to withstand days,
weeks, and even months of barrage.
These were sometimes multiple storeys deep in the ground, reinforced with wood and planks
and sometimes even had electricity.
With few effective ways to get across to the other side of the battlefield,
forces simply dug in and engaged in grueling, drawn-out battles.
But although these trenches were more sophisticated,
they were still more or less open pits in the ground.
If it rained, the trenches would fill with water, meaning that the men stood and slept in mud.
Because of this, the trenches increased the risk of infection, gangrene and several other conditions.
They were also filled with rats and lice that also carried and spread disease.
And although the physical state of the trenches was horrible,
perhaps the worst of all was the sustained barrage of artillery fire
on the mental state of the poor men in the trenches.
Imagine the loudest fireworks you've ever heard turned up 10 notches.
Now, imagine that all day for days and weeks on end.
And not only is it definitely loud, but it's also directly over your head.
It's also sending out shrapnel in every direction that you are constantly at risk of being hit by
and even if you don't get hit, the people around you, your friends are being hit by shrapnel instead.
In all of history, this would be one of the most stressful, sustained situations
that anyone would ever endure.
In 1914, the British Expeditionary Forces
started to get reports of symptoms from individuals on the frontlines.
These were headaches and amnesia and tremors, and a bunch of other symptoms
similar to physical head trauma, but without any actual head trauma.
By December, as many as 10% of British officers experienced some form of these symptoms.
This would eventually come to be known as Shell Shock
as the link between exposure to the artillery fire and these symptoms became better known.
Unfortunately, as with many medical issues of the time
especially psychological ones, it was poorly understood.
Initially, it was thought that maybe the shock waves were causing actual physical trauma
but then reports started to come in of individuals
with symptoms who had not been exposed to artillery.
This contradicted the physical explanation
but didn't stop the symptoms from still being mischaracterized.
Frequently, these cases were dismissed because the person with symptoms
was diagnosed as weak of character.
It's now understood that Shell Shock is a type of post-traumatic stress disorder
that left many emotionally broken to the point that they were panicked and scared,
and even impacted their ability to reason, walk and talk.
But perhaps worst of all, some of the individuals with these symptoms,
based on how long they lasted, could have them put on trial for crimes like desertion and cowardice.
Thankfully though, over the course of the war, individuals in command would come to realize
that rotating individuals away from the frontlines prevented these symptoms.
Time away from the stress of the conditions was able to mitigate the effects to a degree.
And obviously, today, these effects are much better understood.
In World War II, with the technological advances of tanks and other vehicles,
forces were much more mobile again.
This meant that there was less of an emphasis on trench warfare
but there were still many examples throughout.
And obviously, even without trench warfare, the individuals participating in all of this
face some of the most hostile circumstances known to mankind.
Another characteristic feature of Shell Shock
and generally, among those who are combatants, is something known as the thousand-yard stare.
This describes the blank and unfocused stare of someone who looks to be
emotionally detached or disturbed by the horrors around them.
Perhaps nothing demonstrates this batter than the before and after of Evgeny.
On the left is a picture of him before enlisting in 1941
and on the right is him after the war in 1945.
If not for the fact that we know the time difference between pictures,
you might think that 15 years had gone by.
He's much thinner, his face is much more wrinkled,
and his eyes seem to be haunted by the things he saw and went through.
There are a few before and after images of combatants
but Evgeny's is particularly compelling.
Thankfully, there is one picture of him later in life that has circulated
and the look in his eyes is much more similar to the look in his pre-war picture.
Later in his life, he was elected as deputy of his city council
and passed away peacefully in 1973 at the age of 63.
Despite having a total land mass of 636,000 square miles (1,647,232.4 square km),
Iran has just 44,000 square miles (113,960 square km) of water in that massive area.
This amounts to less than 1% of the total land mass.
And despite having large coastlines to the north and south,
the north is bordered by the Caspian Sea and the south is bordered by the Arabian Sea.
Each of these is salty and therefore undrinkable.
Iran also has an arid and semi-arid climate primarily, except for a few areas in the coastlines.
A semi-arad climate is characterized by 10 to 20 inches (25.4 cm to 50.8 cm) annually
and arid is less than 10 inches of rain annually on average.
But even that doesn't tell the whole story.
Because of the diverse geography within the country,
that average doesn't reflect the extremes experienced by different areas.
For example, the southwestern shores can see as much as 80 inches (203.2 cm) of rain annually
whereas the interior desert might see as little as 2 inches (5.08 cm).
To make matters worse, the rainfall that some of these regions experience is highly seasonal
with the majority of it falling during the winter between October and March.
In addition, this often manifests as no rain for long periods of time,
followed by storm that dumps a year's worth of rain in a single downpour.
In fact, one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th Century was the Great Iran Flood of 1954.
One of these downpours occurred and is estimated to have killed at least 2,000 people,
but the largest estimate puts this figure at almost 10,000.
And again, outside of these downpours, droughts can last months and even years.
One of these periods was between 1968 and 1972,
and would come to a horrific end in February of that year.
On February 3rd, 1972, it started to snow in Iran.
And it didn't just snow in one area.
Almost the entire country starts to receive snowfall like nothing else in recorded history.
Now, there are several mountain ranges within the country and the people living in these regions
are accustomed to cold winters with significant snowfall.
But for much of the rest of the country, the winters are mild.
Some areas rarely even drop below freezing in the wintertime
and this would leave them entirely unprepared for what was about to ensue.
Between February 3rd and February 9th, at least 10 feet (3.05 m) of snow fell across the entire country.
And ironically, in the warmer southern coastal regions,
as much as 26 feet (7.92 m) fell over a six-day period.
Extreme wind knocked out power in many areas and extreme cold of negative 13 Fahrenheit
or negative 25 Celsius caused pipes to freeze and burst.
Tragically, many of the people who sheltered in their homes to stay warm
would eventually freeze to death after being trapped inside.
Two cities in particular, Kakan and Kumar, had zero survivors following the storm because of this.
And in another cruel twist of fate, many of the casualties occurred in regions
that were otherwise deserts and received very little precipitation.
All in all, at least 4,000 people died across Iran because of this storm,
in a country that is currently ranked 13th most at risk for water scarcity.
Many areas were simply not accustomed to snowfall at all, let alone a nation halting storm.
And so, the 1972 Iran blizzard remains the worst blizzard in recorded history.
A dam is a structure built in waterways that is used to block the water in some capacity.
A low-head dam is a type of dam that spans the width of a river
that is usually made of concrete and isn't usually that high,
allowing the water to freely flow over the top.
Its purpose is to raise the water level upstream or behind the dam for several reasons.
The raised water makes it easier to navigate boats through otherwise shallow water.
These can also create a drop to spin turbines and generate electricity,
or they can make water available upstream to be used for supply and irrigation.
There are thousands of these low-head dams across North America
that take advantage of waterways - most of which were constructed in the 1800s.
Before electricity was widely available, one of the main power sources was flowing water.
These dams helped to divert the water to mills in other factories to drive different pieces of machinery.
Since electricity became widely available, these dams are often no longer necessary,
leaving property owners to maintain something that is now more or less useless.
However, more often than not, these are simply abandoned and not maintained by anyone.
Dam safety regulations focus primarily on the risk of dam breaching
and the damage that could be caused by the subsequent flooding.
But since low-head dams typically don't block all that much water,
the risks of them breaching are minimal.
This means that many areas simply don't keep track of the numerous low-head dams around the continent.
But despite the minimal danger posed by a breach, low-head dams create another risk
that is the cause of more dam-related fatalities in the US than any other factor.
The design of low-head dams means that upstream, the water is deep, calm and slow-moving.
However, as this water flows over the top of the dam, it picks up enormous speed
and creates a strong recirculating current at the base of the dam.
This current is incredibly dangerous and can trap people, kayaks, boats,
and any other debris that gets caught in the flow.
The force of this current sloshes around and can pull large objects under the water and hold them there.
And this boil zone, as it's called, is not static.
This area can change locations and strength based on the river's flow upstream.
For example, during high water, it could be as much as 100 feet away from the base of the dam.
Even worse, the bubbles created by the rushing water reduces buoyancy by up to a third,
making it even harder to stay afloat if you get caught.
In cold water, as it often is, motor function is reduced and hypothermia can rapidly set in,
further increasing the risk of drowning.
Because of all of this, low-head dams have been called drowning machines.
They also span the length of a river, meaning that swimming to either bank can be incredibly difficult
and makes getting caught in a low-head dam boil almost impossible to survive.
And although low-head dams are no longer built very frequently,
many still remain around North America.
In late September of 1975 at the Rock Bottom Dam in Binghamton, New York,
an early fall storm caused the water to be unusually high in the Susquehanna River.
One evening, two people were rafting in the river
and accidentally got two close to the top of the dam from upstream.
They were then sucked over the top of the dam and directly into the boil zone at the bottom.
Several people in the area saw this and immediately called for help.
And shortly after that, a rescue was launched and firefighters took a boat
into the river from downstream to try to rescue the people who were rafting.
The Binghamton Rock Bottom Dam is a fairly large low-head dam.
Although it's only about 9 feet high (2.74 m), it spans 460 feet (140.2 m) across the river.
On the day of the rescue attempt, the water was obviously high and stretched from bank to bank,
almost up to the trees on either side of the river.
With how high the water was, the level downstream was almost as high as the water upstream
and the water rushing over the dam created a treacherous boil zone just in front of the dam wall.
In order to rescue the rafters, three firefighters
approached the boil zone in a little 12-foot (3.66 m) boat with a tiller handle outboard motor.
When they were close enough, they were able to throw a buoy to one of the rafters
and successfully pulled them out of the churning water.
But when they returned a second time, the boat was pulled into the recirculating current
and flipped over, throwing all three men out of the boat.
The men were then helplessly pulled under the water and around the recirculating current.
Somehow, two of the firefighters and the raft were able to get just clear of the current and swam to safety.
But tragically, the third firefighter wouldn't make it out and eventually drowned.
The following day, rescuers were back in the water
but this time, they would be performing a body rescue operation.
Again, three men approached the boil zone in a little 12-foot boat.
One sat in the back of the boat steering, one stood in the middle, and a third man stood at the front
holding a long pole out in front of the boat to hook onto the third firefighter.
Slowly, the boat got closer and closer to the boil zone
with the current and waves getting larger the closer they got.
Initially, as with the first attempt, everything seemed to be in control.
But right as they got to the edge of the boil zone, the boat got sucked forward unexpectedly,
pulling the nose right into the flow of water coming down from above.
This immediately pushed the entire bow of the boat under the water like a toy,
causing it to then roll over and capsize
and throw the three men out of the boat and into the churning water.
Immediately, they were just barely visible in the bubbling water
along with the boat that was now being thrown around violently.
And although they tried to grab onto the boat, it was being tossed
and spun around so hard that they just couldn't grab hold.
Horrified onlookers watched powerlessly as the men were sucked
under the water periodically and then spit out again.
Along the riverbank, people watching this unfold ran upstream of the dam,
hoping to somehow help the trapped men.
One man even jumped in the water but immediately realized
how strong the current was and turned back.
And even then, swimming as hard as he could, he just barely made it back to shore.
He even had to be pulled out of the water by two other people when he finally made it back
because of how strong the current was.
Next, firefighters on site set up a firetruck along the bank
and extended a crane as far as they could across the river.
Unfortunately, the men were trapped right in the middle of the 460-foot distance
and the crane wasn't long enough to reach them.
Even more horrifying, two of the men in the boil zone
had now slipped under the water and out of view.
This would be the last time they were seen alive.
A final rescue boat was sent into the water as soon as possible
but by then, another 20 minutes had passed.
Carrying just two men this time, the boat tentatively approached the boil zone,
trying desperately to rescue the man whose head was still visible in the water.
But again, as they got close, the churning, swirling water pulled the boat in unexpectedly.
This time, the boat was pulled sideways and smashed up against the damn wall.
It managed to stay afloat for a few short moments before also flipping over
and sending the men into the water.
All three of the men sloshed around in the turbulent water for another few minutes,
desperately trying to stay afloat.
But miraculously, the current change just long enough
to allow them to escape down river and out of its grasp.
It seems almost as though the two boats sloshing around in the water
created pockets where the current wasn't as strong, allowing the men to escape.
Ultimately, of the seven people who fell into the water, five survived
and two unfortunately drowned during the rescue.
There is actually footage of the rescue that you can find by searching "rock bottom dam river rescue"
that captured the events of the second day.
The moment the first boat is pushed under the water is terrifying to say the least.
To my knowledge, it is the only footage that exists and it was filmed by another YouTuber
so I figured it would make sense if you went over to their channel to watch it.
It's an old video, but the quality is surprisingly good for something filmed in 1975.
As a final note, if you're like me and were somewhat aware of the dangers of being near a dam
but had no idea just how dangerous they actually were,
it seems even more advisable to stay well clear of dams
and low-head dams in particular, upstream and downstream.
If you made it this far, I just wanted to thank you for watching.
This is part 12 of A Collection of Horrible Fates,
so you may wanna check out the other videos in the series.
If you enjoyed this video, I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a like.
That helps out with the YouTube algorithm and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.