No predictions just incredible shots of the debris below the spillway and the damage we can see.
The good news is no rain until this weekend, and some very cold weather in that area to prevent snow melt.
Not sure of the snow levels above Oroville dam. Some of the snow levels in the Tahoe skiing area are very very high.
I remember sometimes a lot of snow in those areas into early June in some years.
In some years we have hot temps starting about Mother’s days in that area and not decreasing until the fall.
You know, filling in the hole and fixing the spillway below the main break is not the most important issue on the spillway.
Prioritizing it to me would be like this:
1a) Clear the river of a lot of the debris. Couple of big clam shell passing it to track excavators just to get it out of the river bed, simultaneous with —
1b) Cut a new pathway for water below the break that would not continue to add as much debris to the river channel.
1c) Get above the break with maintenance vehicles and crews and make all repairs to the slab areas above the break. If the spillway has to be put back into action, we need a spillway that will not have its concrete surface break up above the current break and create an entire new source of debris and sub terrain damage.
2) After those items are address simultaneously, then move to cutting out the canyon ( I think I will name it Moonbeam Canyon ) and benching it back for engineered fill considerations. If in mucking it out, it is found to be unable to get back to some bedrock, then consider an engineered drop and eliminate the rock mountain below Moonbeam Canyon.
Not going to be all that cold in the FR basin.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=39.7663&lon=-120.6185#.WLXXCf4zU5s
There is forty one feet of snow in the central Sierras and the resorts are staying open until July 1st.
The damage to the spillway is incredible. I don’t see how the problem gets fixed before next winter, especially since the spillway will have to be opened when the snowmelt starts.