UPDATE: As of 5:30am PST, the emergency spillway is still intact and the water levels in the lake have lowered so that water is no longer flowing over the emergency spillway. Water is still being released through the damaged concrete spillway at a rate of about 100,000cfs. DWR is attempting to lower the lake from it’s capacity of 901′ down to around 850′ so that repairs can begin on both spillways. Crews are waiting for daylight to access the further damage that has occurred overnight. Evacuation orders are still in effect for about 180,000 residents. Rain is back in the forecast for this area starting again on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of people have been fleeing California towns downstream from the Oroville Dam after fears of an imminent collapse of its spillway prompted an evacuation order. Authorities are seeking to stem the breach with the help of helicopters.
“Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. This is NOT A Drill. This is NOT A Drill. This in NOT A Drill,” says the statement posted on the Butte County Sheriff’s Facebook page.
The statement refers to the Lake Oroville Dam, located 105 km (65 miles) north of Sacramento.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the evacuation orders affect 188,000 people, AP reports.
The dam’s spillway was “predicted to fail within the next hour,” the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) said at around 4:30pm PST Sunday (00:30 GMT Monday).
“DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE,” the Yuba County Office of Emergency Services said on Facebook, urging evacuees to travel safely in all other directions and help the elderly.
Thousands of people from Yuba County and Sutter County have been filmed being evacuated from local towns and communities, with vehicles creating long traffic jams.
DWR issued a statement, saying that there is no danger that the dam itself will collapse, as the incident had affected only an emergency spillway.
“Oroville Dam itself is sound and is a separate structure from the auxiliary spillway,” the statement read.
The emergency is the first time in the 48-year-old dam’s history that an uncontrolled spillway is being used, local NBC affiliate KCRA-TV reported.
Heavy rains and snow that struck California this winter have resulted in the dam’s reservoir being filled up to the point of overspill. On Thursday, the works to release water from the dam began after chunks of concrete from the spillway were discovered in the channel below.
Source: Spillway at tallest US dam in California about to collapse, tens of thousands evacuate
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Are YOU OK MR?
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Yes, we’re fine…thanks for asking T-bolt! Not a dam worry here!
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Yuk yuk… 😉
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I read yesterday that California has wanted to fix the dam for decades
But that much needed work was stopped by environmentalist
Recently when a hole formed in the dam all they worried about was the salmon
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That’s standard CA operating procedure! I think part of the blame for this one goes to Mother Nature…after several years of record-breaking drought, we’re on track for the wettest season on record
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As it turns out, it was the other way around. The environmentalists had wanted to state to concrete the emergency spillway to prevent the heavy erosion and to protect the salmon from the down-stream silting of the Feather River. It was the state of Ca and the Feds that decided it was too expensive a project to pursue
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