My understanding is that once the main spillway had a giant section open up in its outflow structure and water was cascading everywhere, debris was in the channel below the structure and water backed up and flooded the hydro plant lower levels.
I believe also, erosion of the bank between the outflow structure and the generating plant knocked out the foundations for some electrical transmission structures.
So with the turbine area flooded with related damage, with transmission lines needing full repair and certification with lots of new cable (they don’t reuse that stuff and it costs about $35 to 85 a lineal foot just on the spool) there is little time now to do the 200 crew hours of work needed to bring the generating plant up again.
Wow....thanks for info. The left hates dams. Getting rid of them here too, Idaho.