https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=585165068348648&id=100005654793767
Video of national guard member talking with woman from Oroville.
Preparing for re-evacuation.
Please see post 1117.
Ping!!!!! Check out FB video!!
Holy moly!
(Still without internet, hopefully restored soon)
Not to downplay the danger, but the NG guy was talking about preparations for if the whole dam should collapse. That could send flood water 180 miles south.
My uneducated opinion, based almost solely on information learned in this thread, is that total dam collapse is unlikely but possible.
My father grew up in Oroville and went to high school in Gridley. I would hate to see the area wiped off the map.
I listened to the video and did not hear the same level of alarm that the woman who made the recording did.
It seems the woman was particularly alarmed about some of the troops considering a move to Merced. Perhaps the National Guard is considering moving some of their people for some other reason. For instance, Merced may be needed as a staging area if something drastic happens.
Merced is quite a ways south of Sacramento. I have seen nothing indicating even a failure of the entire dam would reach as far south as Merced. The water would flow into the Sacramento River, and from there into San Francisco Bay. Don’t see how that would get close to Merced even in a worst case.
None of us know the odds of a dam failure. All we know is that a particularly heavy rain coupled with warm temperatures means at least the emergency spillway portion of the dam is likely to fail. Who knows what would happen after that.
Since it COULD fail, if I lived in the potential flood zone I would make sure I was ready to leave at a moments notice (at a minimum). If my personal situation allowed it, I would leave NOW. Why worry about beating the rush once it becomes clear you must?
http://www.kcra.com/article/officials-dispel-rumors-surrounding-lake-oroville-evacuations/8946030
The California National Guard was forced to dispel rumors Thursday that were running rampant on social media, saying that more evacuations would soon be needed. The story spread fast in Oroville after a citizen recorded her conversation with a soldier.
“And what the soldier said was wrong,” California National Guard Major General David Baldwin said.
“You can absolutely trust your National Guard. We’re a community-based force,” Baldwin added. “We’re fighting and winning our nation’s wars. We are out there on the line defending our country and helping people here at home. They can absolutely trust them. Having said that, people make mistakes and we are going to address mistakes.”
KCRA 3 also learned Thursday that 15 construction crew members were terminated from the job this week.
Five were fired after they failed a drug test, five others were terminated for posting on social media from the worksite — which is forbidden — and five others were let go because they were found to be unqualified for the job, DWR spokesman Chris Orrock said.