Posted on 02/12/2017 6:49:25 PM PST by artichokegrower
I have heard that the emergency spillway is eroding through cutback. This will be an evolutionary erosive failure. It will take some time for the cut back. Hopefully the erosion will be stopped at bedrock, However, I fear that if the erosion of the emergency spillway, on the canted bedrock of the abutment communicates with the hydraulics of the principal spillway, this may result in a V notch failure. This would be the most serious type of failure.
(Excerpt) Read more at linkedin.com ...
Good friend of mine did large emergency job for the state in October and still has not been paid. They called to have him do more. He said no.
Maybe it will be better when California is its own country and they can print money /s
They are saying that the collapse of the spillway is a matter of hours away. Hope they are wrong, but the erosive power of rushing water are often underestimated badly. The water pouring over the emergency spillway is eroding the base of the spillway levee at the bottom of the spillway “hill”. Once enough of that is gone the pressure of the water on the other side will cause a catastrophic collapse.
Yesterday morning the flooway plains between Sacramento and Woodland, which are normally dry, looked like a raging torrent miles wide, with the water only a few feet below the railroad trestle on the other side of the causeway we were travelling on. The river channels around West Sacramento are nearly full to the top. West Sac is like New Orleans - a city built in a bowl with river channels on all sides.
That’s where the water from any Oroville dam failure would wind up, on its way to San Francisco Bay. The potential is for some nasty flooding, and another big storm is days away...
President Trump has been warning us about our infrastructure. This is the quintessential example of pennies wasted resulting in absolute catastrophe.
No catastrophe yet, the water overflow has slowed down greatly in the past few hours, so it looks like the release of the water has helped - but if the storm coming next week is as bad as the last one was, all bets are off ...
There are about 8 gallons per cubic foot iirc. At 50,000cfs that is 400,000 gallons or3,200,000 pounds per second moving at 20mph for a low estimate and you have an unbelievable amount of energy. Nothing we can make can withstand such force for an extended period of time.
“communicates with the hydraulics of the principal spillway”
This is key- the principal spillway has not been maintained and developed a whole where it’s foundation had eroded away.
Just incredible negligence.
I live above the valley. Watching all the traffic going south and east out of the valley. Lots of bad reporting and it appears that the emergency spillway will hold until the water recedes in an hour or so. More to follow.
Sounds similar to an Ice Age mega flood.
Good for him, but watch him get excoriated.
Developed a whole?
You mean hole?
if its undercutting like it was sounding like the may have to dump many feet of water for the hole or crack to stop flowing...
Does anyone have any idea if there will be bad flooding downstream just from what is currently happening? The normal spillway is one thing. But the emergency spillway is at least doubling what the normal spillway is releasing.
Also Here; KRCR Facebook feed. (Found on one of the other threads.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwIst1YiMdo
“Live” thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3524238/posts
LOL! Yes!
Then they reduced flow through the main spillway because of the hole and let the water rise up to the emergency spillway- which has it’s own problems.
The scandal is that California was hordeing all this water in the first place. They should have been drawing down lake levels months ago!
Freeper On Scene !
Priceless
Thanks!
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