Exciting Sunday in Northern California

[MandysMom]

Some may have heard, we had a little more excitement in Northern California than we would prefer. This past week the US tallest dam, (at over 900 ft tall), Oroville Dam, about 78 miles north of us, was in the process of letting out some of the huge inflow of run off water from the unprecedented rainfall plus snow melt from a warm storm coming in from the 4000 sq miles of watershed. Suddenly they got reports of chunks of concrete flying up with the heavy water flowing through he spillway, a channel with gates which allows extra water not needed for power to be bled off to avoid overfilling the reservoir. They can theoretically put up to 250,000 cubic feet per second through that channel, though normally its kept much lower as the river canyon is good for up to 200,000 cubic ft per second without overflowing banks. Water was coming from watershed at up to 190,000 CFS at peak! Flow was around 70,000 CFS when concrete broke loose. Flow was immediately shut off ( with of course water still filling dam at 190,000 CFS ). Inspection happened and they saw a crater. Decision was made they still needed to get rid of water to avoid overtopping dam. There's a never used dirt spillway off to the side which over nearly 50 years had grown trees and just was never needed. That was why it was termed auxiliary or emergency spillway. As water crept up past 90% of full through the end of the week, it got dicey. They worked frantically to clear brush to ready the emergency spillway as they cautiously began letting water flow through the damaged spillway's gates. It's not desirable to use the dirt spillway because it has no gates it's a wall where water would just start flowing over. Friday night the water reached 102% full and began cascading over the emergency spillway while they kept an eye on the regular spillway as they let water through while it continued to tear out concrete and earth.
We are sitting here calmly watching TV this afternoon when an emergency broadcast ensues. The emergency spillway wall is undercut by the huge flow and they felt the wall may give way within an hour or so. Evacuations of nearly 200,000 people in the city of Oroville and cities along the path of the Feather River canyon and small towns along the way. As of midnight, the emergency spillway has stopped running as they brought flow through gates of regular spillway up to 100,000 CFS, which they really didn't want to do, but at least the flow is controllable where with emergency spillway it just runs. The emergency is not over, but has eased. At first light they will get a better look with hopefully water down a foot to see what they are up against and began hauling helicopter loads of bags of boulders to drop into the weak spot which was in danger of failure . They are hoping before this weekend storm they can get 50 ft out of the dam to allow for more rain. Our National guard has activated 2100 people to help with aircraft, military police to assist highway patrol in evacuated cities, and help shelter emergency personnel brought in. Highway Patrol has an extra 100 people in place. Cal Fire has activated a crew to assist with air rescue If needed and in taking DWR people over dam to assess. Our department of Emegency Servives are open in the state OES office. Keeping fingers crossed I don't end up with water front property because a big release of water could cause failure of levees all over downstream, ESP bad in places already struggling with flooding. We dodged a bullet for now. I hope our other northern California people check in to let us know they are ok. We are high and dry in Roseville and receiving a few evacuees.
Once we are through this rain season and snow melt is done, usually summer, it will take millions of dollars to repair the two spillways and be ready for the next winter to store and release as needed as it has for nearly half a century.
This dam holds special meaning to me because the spring I was a senior in college, I finally got into the very popular sailing class. We had 16 to 20 ft sailboats we put in Lake Oroville and learned our practical skills. ESP fun for me since the following September I would enter Officer Training and be an Ensign in the Navy! We looked up, way up at the awesome sight of the great 900 ft tall dam towering over us, as it only had a scant 2' years of water in it at that point. Little did I know those days that nearly half century later I would be 78 miles away watching and hoping that great dam, built for flood control and water storage, would be as strong as it looked in 1971.
Cheers all and have a good week.
Velda

[IrishIroamed]

Velda, what you posted about the evacuations, and the boulder placements is what I heard on the news this A.M. Any updates? I didn't realize you were so close.

[Queen]

Wow, Velda, I don't watch the news so I hadn't heard about this!! Hope everyone stays safe.

[Cudedog]

My home is located about 1/2 mile from the Feather River, directly downstream from Oroville dam.

If the projected failure happens, my house is toast.

I evacuated my home last night. Very dear friends have opened their home to me in the Vallejo area.

I have my dog and my cat - and my van - with me, and very little else. No clothes.

The sudden message on my tv stated that the emergency spillway was due to fail within the hour, and to evacuate. AND: "This is NOT a drill" repeated three times.

Have had no sleep yet since last night.

Will try to write more when I am coherent.

Anne

[gypsyrose1126]

Anne -- I hope it all turns out ok for you and they are able to control the water flow so that everyone can return to their homes. Because of the business I am in, the first thing I thought of was all those poor people if the something happens and the water floods the towns, they would not have any insurance coverage for flood. I will keep my fingers crossed and say a little prayer that the threat goes away.

[MandysMom]

Anne, I was so thinking of you last night as I thought you were in the area! Do stay safe.
This morning they are inspecting and plan to dump rock via chopper into eroded area and continue to draw down water via damaged regular spillway in anticipation of rain by Thursday.
Velda

[Rufflesgurl]

WOW
Anne - glad you had a place to evacuate to. Take care.

Velda - are you comfortable with the distance you are from Oroville? You take care also.

Scary watching on TV all this happening! I wonder what surveillance of this damn and its spillways was in place during all the years of drought? I thought of this yesterday watching the emergency spillway water release!!

Linda

[JudyJB]

I've been watching that dam situation for the last couple of days. My daughter-in-law's cousins live up there, so were really panicky yesterday about evacuating. Her father has no photos of his childhood because his house flooded when he was a child. At least now, nearly all of us have out stuff digitally. Hope you were able to grab your computers. I think that would be my first priority. I keep backup drives at my son's house in his gun safe and one in the bank safety deposit box, just in case, but I have a ton of old stuff still in plastic boxes at his house. (I did make multiple copies of my dad's old family movies and gave them to cousins.)

Whew! That is a lot to think about for all of us.

Makes you wonder if those big dams, especially the earthen ones, are really safe, no matter what the engineers say. Seems like they should have had more emergency spillways, although I am sure with the recent drought, too much water was the last thing they thought about!

Hope they are able to put in a fix and you can go back home, at least to get some clothes. And maybe you can get more sleep tonight.

[Acadianmom]

The weather channel was talking to people stuck in traffic jams trying to evacuate. Looks like our hurricane evacuations. If you don't leave early you aren't going anywhere.

Anne, I hope your house doesn't flood or get washed away. Been there, done that and it's not fun. I could only sleep for a few hours for weeks. I was lucky I had most of my pictures at my son's trailer and most of the others in the house were in the top of a closet. I lost my album from college and one with pictures of my older son.

Martha

[snowball]

haven't heard anything so hoping that it is doing better the dam that is
be safe
sheila

[Cudedog]

Anne -- I hope it all turns out ok for you and they are able to control the water flow so that everyone can return to their homes. Because of the business I am in, the first thing I thought of was all those poor people if the something happens and the water floods the towns, they would not have any insurance coverage for flood. I will keep my fingers crossed and say a little prayer that the threat goes away.

Thanks for the post, Rosemary.

Actually, one can purchase flood insurance if one so chooses - this would be over and above the cost of one's Homeowner's insurance.

When I first moved to the town in which I live, which is in a known flood plain, the very first thing I did was to purchase flood insurance. It seemed to be unwise not to, understanding the history of the area as I do. I then continued to renew my flood insurance each year during California's drought, when there was barely any rain, let alone any flood threat.

Just for fun, I upped my flood insurance coverage when it renewed in January. I hope to God I don't have to use it - but if I do, it is there.



Thank you.

Anne

[Cudedog]

Anne, I was so thinking of you last night as I thought you were in the area! Do stay safe.
This morning they are inspecting and plan to dump rock via chopper into eroded area and continue to draw down water via damaged regular spillway in anticipation of rain by Thursday.
Velda

Thank you Velda.

I have been scouring the news feeds and there isn't a lot of new information. . . aside from the fact that, apparently, the Department Of Water Resources was aware of the potential failure of the emergency spillway more than a decade ago, when it was brought to their attention by the Sierra Club and the Friends of the River:

"State Knew Spillway Could Fail More Than Ten Years Ago":

http://www.kcra.com/article/state-knew-oroville-spillway-could-fail-10-years-ago/8777008

When things simmer down, I expect that the brown stuff will be hitting the fan - Big Time - over this little trinket of news.

Also - one of the networks stated that there might be twelve inches of rain over the Oroville Dam watershed over the next several days. Certainly not news the 150,000 +/- people currently out of their homes wanted to hear.

This ongoing disaster is beginning to take on a feeling of unreality.

At least for me. I am extremely blessed to be staying with friends - who have also welcomed my cat and my dog - during this time of trial.

Velda, thanks again.

Anne

[Queen]

Anne, I'm glad you have flood insurance and hope you don't have to use it.

We didn't buy it for our condo in FL because it more than doubles the price and they write the policies in such a way that they cover almost nothing, you have to buy homeowners, flood, and hurricane... and if you try to use it the refrain is "sorry, not covered".

[MandysMom]

Seems the government prefers to spend $$$ on high speed trains to no where and water tunnels, while infrastructure deteriorates. I do hope they got the needed wake up call this time.
Anne, I'm glad you are ok and that the prediction tonight of more snow than rain holds true. This whole thing reminds me of chicken little. Drought on, let's spend $$ on other things while the chicken is hollering but the dam is a half century old! They have spent $$ on upgrades to Folsom Dam, maybe because the water /flood would be aimed at he state legislatures offices in Sacramento!
I so feel for the thousands out of their homes.
Velda