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.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That's telling him!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

His nickname is MoonBeam for a good reason!

[KevinB]

Ping for later.

[roadcat]

... the cities of Antioch west to Martinez are under threat along its shoreline, and we could have flooding threats in the Carquinez Strait, San Pablo Bay and possibly even the piers on the eastern shore of San Francisco.

I don't think it will come to that, causing flooding to the piers of SF. But if, just if, it came to that... keep in mind that SF Bay waters are just a couple of feet below street level at some piers at high tide. If water came over the Embarcadero Street surface then it would cause flooding into the BART/Muni subway tunnels which thousands of people use daily. I can imagine that authorities would evacuate the tunnels if they know a water surge is coming. Nonetheless, it would cause major damage to the subway tunnels (Muni tunnel is second level down, BART is third level below street level and dips under the Bay).

[maggief]

Unconfirmed:

This comment is from arfcom’s ProFryan, who was live streaming on Periscope from the dam over the weekend.

2/14/2017 12:02:24 AM EST
All right, I just got home. Where are we at?

Clearly O town is f***ed. The latest pictures show the cracks right beneath the Espill are the deathblow. Anyone with half a brain knows that it’s not Fill it’s decomposed granite or who knows what that’s just rock sitting on top of a rock.

( The word from the people working on it who are not allowed to talk publicly is there are seven monster cracks beneath the emergency spillway )

[RockyTx]

is flow over the
‘emergency spillway’,
controllable by humans?

people have been using the term
‘use the emergency spillway’.

WTF does that mean?

looks to me like the emergency spillway
is just the
lowest part of the containment structure

[TXnMA]

You are absolutely right -- except, it wasn't totally "unexpected". On Google Earth (much earlier, when that entire area was dry) you can see a runoff gully around the end of the main spillway and down toward that big cut -- filled with white riprap.

I blew up the lower corner of your photo:

Even with the water level well below the top of the spillway, there is still water extending around the end of it! Next time, all it would take is dislodging of a couple of those remaining chunks of white riprap for undercutting of the end of the main spillway to begin!

Curiously, the placement of rock-filled bags totally ignores that imminent vulnerability -- and they are putting them below the other corner of the parking lot:

Where some one stupidly built a road around the little curb-like extension of the spillway -- at a lower elevation.

[rodguy911]

California definitely doesn’t have a clue how to manage its water supply.I wonder who is in charge of the state? Could it be Demoncrats? What a coincidence.

[rodguy911]

Great analysis thanks very much.

[tomkat]

Thanks to you both .. my eyelids won the battle last night before I saw your posts  :-)

[rodguy911]

If I were Trump I would say to moonbeam,’sure you can be a disaster area, you already are. Get rid of the sanctuary cities and we will declare your entire state a disaster area.Since it already is.

[tomkat]

In the first photo: perhaps it’s just a piece of floating debris that’s gotten lodged against that little fence, but that sure looks like a pretty hefty crack in the concrete cap of the Espill.

[mewzilla]

Is the evac from Oroville mandatory or voluntary, anyone know?

[tomkat]

Mandatory.

[tomkat]

..per my understanding from previous reporting.

[tomkat]

..tho we do have one FReeper* who lives near, but above, the reservoir who has stayed put.

* (whose nick I don’t recall at the moment )-:

[mewzilla]

Thanks! I wonder what hopitals with emergency and critical patients are doing, assisted living facilities? I saw that Oroville itself is a small town, population between 13 to 15k? If the evac was for up to 200k, that’s got to include even more businesses, schools, hospitals, assisted living facilities. How long are the folks affected supposed to stay wherever they are?

And WTH is Brown. I see CA’s LT GOV has schlepped his butt doen there, but where is Brown?

[tomkat]

Sorry, but following this from PA means all my info is secondhand from the 'news' and FR.

However I did hear reported on KCRA a day or two ago re a hospital downstream that isn't evacuating, but has 'a plan in place' to use the upper floors.
(tho the obvious follow up question wasn't asked .. and I don't recall the hospital's location)

Given the multiple defects being found/reported re the dam, one is tempted to imagine that several downstream communities could be destined for ghost town status.

Barring massive repairs, the damned thing could hardly be considered a 'good neighbor' at this point.

All in all, truly FUBAR.

[mewzilla]

Villages of the Dam: Homes and businesses beneath California's Oroville Dam lie abandoned underwater - as it's revealed officials were warned about the crumbling structure TWELVE YEARS ago

As recently as last month, no money in the budget earmarked for dam repairs.

[WildHighlander57]

Freeper abigkahuna lives there.