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Living Beneath a Wall of Water: Can Oroville Residents Trust the Dam Will Hold?
Sacramento Bee ^ | 2/17 | DALE KASLER, RYAN LILLIS AND JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS

Posted on 02/18/2017 11:05:20 PM PST by nickcarraway

The music was snapped off, and the lunchtime chatter at the Keg Room quieted down. Bartender Vivian Jenkins cranked up the volume on the two TVs hanging over the bar as “The Young and the Restless” ended and the real daytime drama came onscreen: the noon media briefing from Oroville Dam, 3 miles up the road.

Friday’s episode brought encouraging news. Progress was being made on releasing water from Lake Oroville, while work crews continued to patch the dam’s troubled emergency spillway. Kory Honea, the Butte County sheriff, reminded viewers “we’re still operating under an emergency situation” and they needed to be ready to flee.

“Just waiting for the wall of water to come out,” said Dan Hill, 61, as he sipped a glass of red wine, before quickly adding: “You’ve got to make light of this.”

Life isn’t exactly back to normal yet in Oroville. The mandatory evacuations ended last Tuesday, but not everyone has returned home, and folks in town have suitcases packed in case they’re ordered to leave again. Dump trucks and helicopters hauling concrete to the dam have become part of the scenery. Some schools remain closed, and with an “atmospheric river” rainstorm poised to roll into the region Monday, people are keeping a wary eye on their cellphones and TV sets, awaiting the next bulletin.

“Doing laundry and getting ready to go if we have to,” said Matt Mentz, as he and his wife Jessica ate breakfast Friday at Jenn’s Cafe in Oroville.

While most in Oroville have confidence in what they’re hearing from law enforcement and state Department of Water Resources officials,

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; dam; lakeoroville; oroville; orovilledam
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1 posted on 02/18/2017 11:05:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Situational Awareness:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_awareness


2 posted on 02/18/2017 11:08:37 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (I was conceived in liberty, how about you?)
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To: nickcarraway

Nice headline. And no.


3 posted on 02/18/2017 11:19:13 PM PST by JennysCool
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To: nickcarraway

I’d be gone like yesterday’s burrito.


4 posted on 02/18/2017 11:20:39 PM PST by Old Yeller (Auto-correct has become my worst enema.)
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To: nickcarraway; WildHighlander57; EarthResearcher333; null and void

Maxwell folks were given zero notice when their canal breached at 3am

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1534058226623401&set=p.1534058226623401&type=3&theater

5 posted on 02/18/2017 11:23:31 PM PST by LucyT
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To: JennysCool
Nice headline. And no.

Well, the dam itself is not in question, but who cares?

DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER! DANGER!

6 posted on 02/18/2017 11:24:24 PM PST by dr_lew (I)
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To: nickcarraway

Do you trust government “workers”? Hahahaaaaa.


7 posted on 02/18/2017 11:28:25 PM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation camp?)
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To: nickcarraway

A better question to those people: How much do you trust your state government to have maintained the dam right or done the emergency repair properly? How much do you *really* trust your government?


8 posted on 02/18/2017 11:36:54 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: nickcarraway
"Anxiety levels surely increased when someone posted a Facebook video last Wednesday in which a National Guardsman was heard discussing “the eventual re-evacuation.” David Baldwin, adjutant general of the California National Guard, appeared at the press briefing that day to say the Guardsman had made a mistake."
9 posted on 02/19/2017 12:02:17 AM PST by daisy12
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To: daisy12

The Future can be a tough thing to predict. Ask H->! .


10 posted on 02/19/2017 12:06:15 AM PST by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: Old Yeller
I'd be gone like yesterday's burrito

Easier said than done. If a family has a house that can't be sold and have to stay in the area, where do they go? They can't sell those houses and most probably have mortgages. Their best way out might be to keep paying their bills and holding on until an insurance company pays up, and that won't happen if they don't have flood insurance.

Going means taking the family, probably leaving all possessions they can't fit in the car behind, and deciding where to start over. Some people have financial resources, or jobs that can be done from anywhere, or family or a second home they can move to. Most people don't.

11 posted on 02/19/2017 12:12:08 AM PST by grania
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To: nickcarraway

This is like another Y2K.


12 posted on 02/19/2017 12:32:53 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: Lisbon1940

In this case....you might as well put a rubber-raft on top of your roof and prepare. It’ll happen sooner or later.


13 posted on 02/19/2017 12:40:34 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: grania; Old Yeller; nickcarraway
They can't sell those houses and most probably have mortgages.

What I don’t understand is buying a house in the flood plain of a huge dam in the first place.

Why build a whole town in the flood plain of a huge dam?

Has no one ever heard of the Johnstown Flood . ?

14 posted on 02/19/2017 12:44:31 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Pontiac
Floods from dams bursting are actually quite common in US history. There was one way back near Northampton MA that took out an entire factory town. What's shocking is that dams aren't being properly maintained.

People buying those houses? It's a human nature thing. People just don't prepare for everything that might happen. If they're in a flood plain, they probably have insurance. They trust their government to provide these basic services, while they spend money on all sorts of stuff the gov shouldn't be doing.

What's mind-boggling is that CA is one of the enviro-whacko states. They're concerned about climate change, but weren't concerned about keeping dams safe? Does not compute.

15 posted on 02/19/2017 12:55:18 AM PST by grania
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To: dr_lew

If the water erodes around the side of the emergency spillway that will cause massive flooding.


16 posted on 02/19/2017 1:15:15 AM PST by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: grania

They want the dams to *go away* - they just drained and removed the Hetch Hetchee dam out there.


17 posted on 02/19/2017 1:24:23 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy#Proposed_restoration


18 posted on 02/19/2017 1:45:49 AM PST by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: grania
"Easier said than done. If a family has a house that can't be sold and have to stay in the area, where do they go?"

You hang on and keep getting inundated until FEMA finally buys you out. I have acquaintances in West Virginia who have been flooded out by five 100 year events in the last 30 years. Once hardworking and self reliant, they turned into professional victims and procurers of government money. The trap of being trapped.

19 posted on 02/19/2017 2:10:52 AM PST by buckalfa (I am deplorable.)
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To: Spktyr
You can't make this stuff up: ( from Wikipedia )

The dam would not have to be completely removed; rather, it would only be necessary to cut a hole through the base in order to drain the water and restore natural flows of the Tuolumne River. Most of the dam would remain in place, both to avoid the enormous costs of demolition and removal, and to serve as a monument for the workers who built it.[68] The water storage provided at Hetch Hetchy could be transferred into Lake Don Pedro lower on the Tuolumne River by raising the New Don Pedro Dam 30 ft (9.1 m). Water could be diverted into the Kirkwood and Moccasin Powerhouses using lower-impact diversion dams, providing power generation on a seasonal basis, and the enlarged height at Don Pedro would also increase power generation there.

...

The Don Pedro is one of those sprawling flood plain reservoirs, much like Oroville. How can you moan and whine over the Hetch Hetchy, and just dump it all on the Don Pedro? I takes a liberal!

20 posted on 02/19/2017 2:44:13 AM PST by dr_lew (I)
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