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Emergency: California’s Oroville Dam Spillway Near Failure, Evacuations Ordered
Breitbart ^ | Feb 12, 2017 | Joel B. Pollak1

Posted on 02/12/2017 4:26:47 PM PST by janetjanet998

Edited on 02/12/2017 9:33:58 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

The California Department of Water Resources issued a sudden evacuation order shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday for residents near the Oroville Dam in northern California, warning that the dam’s emergency spillway would fail in the next 60 minutes.

The Oroville Dam is the highest in the nation.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: butte; california; dam; dwr; evacuation; lakeoroville; liveoroville; moonbeamcanyon; moonbeammadness; oroville; orovilledam; orovillelive; runaway; spillway; sutter; water; yuba
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To: cloudmountain
..no official video or live shots of the emergency spillway..

It was really frustrating. We had citizen-journalists hiking around check points to get to where they could broadcast a periscope report of the primary spillway.

At the end of the day, CHP (California Highway Patrol) put up a shot of the emergency spillway. To the far left, a lot of water coming from parking lot overflow, and too much brown water, indicators of very active erosion, Not rock! I watched a scam video supposedly of the damage. it went away when daylight came and they switched to an old recording of another flood.

521 posted on 02/13/2017 7:20:04 AM PST by Dustoff45 (Where there is smoke, there is someone playing with matches trying to start a fire.)
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To: janetjanet998

One of the live TV bcsts said the lake level was 3’ below the auxiliary spillway this morning, but I’ve seen no pics or video.


522 posted on 02/13/2017 7:20:08 AM PST by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: abb

DWR website shows lake level at 897.55, so 3.5 feet below level of emergency overflow - 901 feet.


523 posted on 02/13/2017 7:26:30 AM PST by Dustoff45 (Where there is smoke, there is someone playing with matches trying to start a fire.)
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To: maggief

FUBAR


524 posted on 02/13/2017 7:30:01 AM PST by SE Mom (Screaming Eagle mom)
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To: SE Mom
Unresponsive government is inexcusable.

Another example of what voters get when they keep electing liberals/democrats.

They have known for three years they had a defective spillway. I do not have much faith in the DWR managers over-seeing this. They have to be in a huge CYA mode trying to look good.

Vantage points exist where a competent TV broadcast crew could be shooting a live shot right now.

The sun is up and citizen-voters want to see the damage.

525 posted on 02/13/2017 7:33:31 AM PST by Dustoff45 (Where there is smoke, there is someone playing with matches trying to start a fire.)
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Comment #526 Removed by Moderator

To: Dustoff45

Only video I’ve seen this AM is shots of crews filling slingbags with riprap.


527 posted on 02/13/2017 7:36:55 AM PST by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: Dustoff45
They are saying water level is down but the Oroville webcam sure looks like water is still overtopping this morning.

I did notice about an hour ago they moved from close up to a long range shot.

528 posted on 02/13/2017 7:38:02 AM PST by commish (Freedom tastes Sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it!)
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To: Dustoff45
They have known for three years they had a defective spillway. I do not have much faith in the DWR managers over-seeing this. They have to be in a huge CYA mode trying to look good.

Exactly, they knew in 2013 that a crack had developed in the main spillway and was in danger of being undermined, and yet all they did was a minor patch job instead of fixing the underlying problem.

529 posted on 02/13/2017 7:39:42 AM PST by commish (Freedom tastes Sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it!)
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To: commish

Are they deigning to tell the 200K evacuees when they’ll likely be able to return, or do they need to find new jobs, schools, houses, lives?


530 posted on 02/13/2017 7:42:28 AM PST by txhurl (The LEFT are screaming at the Tsunami, and the Sky, trying to set fire to the Ocean- S.Tom)
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To: commish

are you sure its live?

if it is do you mean water still flowing over the spillway or just down the hill?


531 posted on 02/13/2017 7:45:32 AM PST by janetjanet998
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To: GOPe Means Bend Over Spell Run

It’s the CA red counties you’re talking about punishing here, they’re not responsible for the outrageous behavior of the Democrat state government. This needs to be taken care of to the extent possible without delay. Being suspicious of the state diverting federal aid to fund further moonbattery is not unfounded, so there’s a certain logic to federalizing emergency measures and repairs specific to the Oroville dam. However, returning to the Katrina comparison that keeps cropping up, I recall that the Army Corps of Engineers was wrongfully blamed for levee problems in the New Orleans area, so federalizing the matter creates a scapegoat. It needs to remain clear exactly whose problem this is and whose problem it remains, the state government of CA.


532 posted on 02/13/2017 7:46:51 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: janetjanet998
It is a live WEBCAM of the dam top and lake.

The Spillway is at the top of the picture. You can see the top of the dam, then the white structure at the end is the permanent spillway, and the emergency spillway is just beyond that.

Right now the view is so far you can't really tell anything except that water is flowing at that end, but until about an hour a go they had it zoomed in on the spillways and it sure looked like water was still flowing over the top.

Full disclosure though, since the water is supposedly down but only a couple feet below the rim the camera angle could just look like it is still overtopping. The flow would still be there if they were releasing down the main spillway to lower water more.

They will have to do controlled releases while doing repairs no mater what as the inflow to the lake will cause it to rise back up within a matter of hours.

533 posted on 02/13/2017 7:51:39 AM PST by commish (Freedom tastes Sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it!)
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To: txhurl; janetjanet998

“Are they deigning to tell the 200K evacuees when they’ll likely be able to return, or do they need to find new jobs, schools, houses, lives?”

One of our earlier posters, janetjanet998 posted her observations yesterday shown below.

Janet’s posts/replies were apparenly more accurate than the Governor Brown’s tv stations from the Sac. area.

There was almost an info blackout yesterday.....no official video or live shots of the emergency spillway...but i saw on youtube a shot from a distance and noticed the road that goes to the boatramp completely eroded away...and it was undercutting bad...but then at the press conference in the afternoon they said “mininmal” erosion and Im like WTF?

the good news is that 100,000 continue to spill of of the controlled spillway ehich means it must not be doing any more great damage at those rates

515 posted on 2/13/2017, 7:07:21 AM by janetjanet998

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3524221/posts?page=515#515


534 posted on 02/13/2017 7:53:18 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Our concerned trolls/NeverTrumpsters, don't know to celebrate winning as they buy into fake news!!!!)
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To: Advil000
So far as I know, the main spillway is dropping 100k cfps and will continue to do so until the lake is at least 50 feet down. That has the Feather at barely monitor stage where I live. The emergency spillway is no longer being used as the lake has lowered below that level.

So what's the real situation? ‘Hey, we got a hole forming, and it's cutting back towards the face of the emergency spillway, I think this thing's going to go within an hour.’ (45 minutes of discussions later) Evacuate Oroville. About 30 minutes later, Yuba & Sutter counties ordered evacuations of low areas, and then 20 minutes after that, Marysville was ordered to evacuate.

I'm not sure what the plan is at this point. The dam is stabilized at this time. They have a plan to shore up the areas of concern, though the damaged spillway is still an ongoing issue and will likely remain so until July.

Meanwhile, twiddling thumbs in a hotel waiting for more information.

535 posted on 02/13/2017 7:55:48 AM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: Grampa Dave

I live behind Mansfield Dam, which would wash Austin to kingdom come if anything bad ever happened (mixed feelings there), so these situations terrify me. But we locals would know exactly what the problem is and what to expect.

It just seems like Moonbeam’s position is like ‘nunya bidness’ to investigation/coverage of this.


536 posted on 02/13/2017 7:58:24 AM PST by txhurl (The LEFT are screaming at the Tsunami, and the Sky, trying to set fire to the Ocean- S.Tom)
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To: LibWhacker
Yikes .. significantly larger than that earlier one   :-\
537 posted on 02/13/2017 7:59:10 AM PST by tomkat
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To: kingu

I guess dropping it 50ft will enough to store the incoming rainwater? Supposed to rain for a week? Stay safe.


538 posted on 02/13/2017 8:02:37 AM PST by txhurl (The LEFT are screaming at the Tsunami, and the Sky, trying to set fire to the Ocean- S.Tom)
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To: txhurl

Dropping it 50ft will give them the cushion to continue to manage the outflow from the dam using both the power plant and the regular spillway without letting the lake reach the emergency spillway level.

Two idiotic forces are at work; first and foremost has been the spending of billions on the train to nowhere when the spillway should have been fixed during the dry years. Second idiotic force was curtailing the outflow of the damaged spillway to reduce silt in the river to protect fish.

Both of those now have at least 120k people no longer in their homes.


539 posted on 02/13/2017 8:09:34 AM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: rlmorel

Oroville is a concrete and bedrock dam. It is not an earthen (soft earth and rock) structure and is not in danger of failing. There is concern for a 320ft long section of concrete that acts as an uncontrolled spillway when the lake level gets about 900 feet, and worst case scenario would be like a 30ft dam failing.

ONLY that portion is in danger.


540 posted on 02/13/2017 8:13:04 AM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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