Dams are critical pieces of infrastructure not often in the forefront of public attention or discussion, perhaps because so few of us interact with them on a regular basis, if at all. But when powerful storms – like those fueled by Hurricane Joaquin – occur, it’s easy to see the vital role dams play in public safety.

[Related: South Carolina residents rush to higher ground as 14 dams fail]

Below you can view selected fields for South Carolina dams from the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a national database kept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The data ...

The NICAR Data Library has updated the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a database kept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on dams in all 50 states with details that include structure type, purpose, owner, most recent inspection date and inspection frequency. The data also include latitude and longitude.

You can use these records to zero in on neglected and potentially dangerous dams in your area. In the past, newsrooms have used the ...

Next week the NICAR database library will release the National Inventory of Dams (NID), a database that has been inaccessible for over a decade. For years the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied its release (citing "national security" reasons) until recently when it was posted online in a publicly available searchable (but not downloadable) table. IRE and NICAR have gone to great lengths to acquire the ...

Armand Emamdjomeh

Armand Emamdjomeh is a data reporter at the Los Angeles Times. While at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, he helped to launch Mission Local, a community news site ...