Emergency: California’s Oroville Dam Spillway Near Failure, Evacuations Ordered

Breitbart ^ | Feb 12, 2017 | Joel B. Pollak1

[janetjanet998]

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.

[maggief]

WTH?! That’s the far side of the parking lot where helicopters are dropping bags of rocks.

http://www.kcra.com/article/live-video-kcra-3/6811856

[sissyjane]

https://twitter.com/KTVU/status/831295308214595585

[sissyjane]

Did you see the deep hole, and the large cracks next to it??? AND that is BEHIND the spillway. Holy Moly!

[abb]

Looks like the entire lower half of the primary spillway is completely trashed.

[maggief]

Yes! Definitely an ‘oh sh!t’ moment.

Wow.

Surfing for a screen cap ....

[janetjanet998]

why would they start there thats like the furthest possible point away from the water

[Jim W N]

It would be nice to see where this seepage might take place by locating it on a cross-section like this.

[maggief]

Perhaps it's undermining the spillway itself, eroding from beneath.

They may ass well throw sacks of money down that hole.

[sissyjane]

It’s behind the spillway. On the lake side.

[maggief]

Oops, s/b “as”.

LOL!

[abb]

I see a concrete pumper truck in the video

[editor-surveyor]

.
>> “This is a very serious situation.” <<

Indeed!

But not one that cannot be addressed with fairly routine procedures.

Bentonite clay is frequently used to deal with such seepage, but if there is turbulence from flows going over the weir it could be difficult to apply.

The work is typically done by divers.

Another concern is that a possible earthquake, up to 5.0 magnitude has been predicted by a freelance seismologist that has a fairly good record.

There are going to be lots of jitters around here for the next few days.
.

[Thud]

VERY informative thread here:

https://www.metabunk.org/oroville-dam-spillway-failure.t8381/page-9

[SE Mom]

Man oh man.

[maggief]

[tomkat]

There’s some serious wishful thinkin’ goin’ on right there .. sheeez !

[maggief]

[abb]

It may take while to get geared up, but once things get rolling, ain’t NOBODY IN THE WORLD can fix sh!t better than Americans!!!

Once the politicians are run off, and the adults take over, stuff happens!

[maggief]

NOTE:

Image is not from today ... just trying to put the parking lot rock dump in perspective.

[SE Mom]

All these aerial shots are showing the truth, that, as Mr. Cahill pointed out is in short supply. There’s more holes, more potential problem areas than I think they’re saying.

Earlier I heard that temps will be in 60’s and 70’s..snow melting will start adding to the mess.