Oroville Dam Spillway Emergency: Number of People Ordered to Evacuate Rises to Nearly 200,000 (CA)

weather.com ^ | Feb. 12, 2017 | AP

[steve86]

“Why do I think two damns, miles apart might be better”

I don’t know why you think that. Oroville Lake is a reservoir. Where does the second dam go?

[NormsRevenge]

California has suffered from a deficit of failed leadership for years. The history of the western water wars is a long one, this is just the latest installment.

while billions of gallons go racing to the ocean ,, the HSRailjob continues.. new reservoirs and dams,, ?? Not in our lifetimes.. or with leadership like we have had the last 40 years plus.

[BerryDingle]

And couldn't some water have been released before the buildup?

No, California is in a drought. Remember the excuse, releasing some water would knock down some trees.

[VideoDoctor]

Strangely the spillway damage was pointed out DAYS before the overflow flooding began.

Authorities at that time said "no problem"... everything under control.

[DuncanWaring]

Keep in mind that article’s two years old, and Lake Mead is up about 10 feet from where it was at that time.

Also, the same weather pattern that’s putting so much rain in California is also making for an exceptionally good Upper Colorado snowpack.

[TXnMA]

The damaged main spillway at low overflow.

The water changes color where the "pothole" is -- and you can see that water has tunneled under and is escaping to the right and is flowing down the right side outside the concrete spillway -- eroding as it does so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Under high overflow, the water erupts into spray when it hits the pothole:

And, the out-of channel flow to the right has about exceeded the width of the concrete channel. The massive erosion taking place on the right side will rapidly undermine and remove the part of the concrete channel below the pothole -- and will cut back rapidly toward the dam face.

~~~~~~~~~

The auxiliary spillway:

Note at the left end of the white overflow at right, that there is a significant notch failure in the concrete spillway lip. Under continued flow over this spillway, that notch almost certainly will worsen --- and may fail -- allowing water to undercut the concrete ridge cap (lip) and slice downward through the dam.

And, of course, surface erosion of the ridge past the concrete lip is already well underway. Dam failure is just a matter of time -- unless bedrock intervenes.

[bgill]

Not going to last much longer.

It’s too late to page the Little Dutch Boy.

[wbarmy]

NICE PICTURES!!!!

And I hope that was with a telephoto lense because I would not want to be standing there waiting for the failure.

[DoughtyOne]

They’re more worried this will reflect poorly on Obama and Brown, than about the citizens this fiasco has displaced, and the potential massive property damage that may follow.

That’s right folks, it was Bush’s fault.

Good grief. Truman was wrong. The buck doesn’t stop anywhere unless it’s on a Republican’s desk.