Actually if this next storm coming through is as big as the last two....the danger just begins.
They need it dry for a while, so they can shore this structure up. Even if they had that dry spell, there is a ton of pressure on this weakened dam. They will not be able to tell how damaged this dam is until they can see it without the water flowing over it and down the spillway. They need to see if any hole, no matter how small, has been made where water might be coming through lower down the walls now.
Thank you. I’ve been following this pretty closely and as you kmow, there are mixed messages from various interests. Add to that, diverse opinions about how to prepare and solve, short and long term...it’s a mess.
Triage first, but even that is fraught with division.
Seems confident, but they were confident in the spillway, too.
Http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-92562898/
Offcials emphasized that although erosion had carved a massive hole in the Oroville Dam’s main spillway, the dam itself is structurally sound.
“Believe me, in the last several days there have been a lot of eyes on it,” said Bill Croyle, acting director of the California Department of Water Resources. “Oroville Dam is not in any way a part of the damage that occurred.”
Bingo!!! They have had ample opportunity to address this issue during the draught when it would have been easier to do so. Instead, their focus was on "politically correct" issues like giving sanctuary to illegal aliens including felons, imposing gay marriage on the people vis a vis activist judges overriding the peoples' vote, etc. etc. and using tax money that could have been spent on dam repairs to finance other areas of the radical liberal agenda that had nothing to do with infrastructure.