Posted on 02/14/2017 6:09:46 AM PST by Mariner
While more than 180,000 residents remain evacuated from their homes in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties, there is no timetable as to when people can return home as water officials and engineers assess the damage and situation at the two damaged Oroville Dam spillways, the Butte County sheriff said Monday.
As tensions remain high around the area, some good news came early Monday morning when water levels at Lake Oroville dropped below capacity, stopping water from spilling over the potentially hazardous emergency spillway.
However, officials are still looking to lower the lake another 50 feet to less than 850 feet elevation to allow space in the lake for the upcoming storm, projected to arrive Thursday. Dropping the lake levels that much without increasing outflows could take several more days, KCRA meteorologist Dirk Verdoorn said.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcra.com ...
It is simply not possible to repair a structure this massive in a few days.
And they cannot be certain until June at the earliest.
Sounds awful. Might mean that some should not return.
And, just over a year ago, they were complaining about Lake Oroville being too low...
This is a ploy to get Federal assistance.
4-6 inches of rain expected in the mountains above Oroville from Thursday - Monday.
Rainfall plus the snow it melts.
Inflows will be back to 200,000+ cfs by Monday.
https://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Paradise%2C+CA
Outflow capped at 100,000 CFS.
Not it’s not.
The area is simply not safe.
However, they could allow a 48 hour window for people to go back and get some stuff.
If ever there were a physical picture for 1st graders of why Rats should not run the country, this is it. Big. Bold. Picture.
Considering the traffic jams that occurred after the initial evac, if they let folks in to get stuff, they’d better do a better job of managing traffic the second time around. That first evac was a charlie foxtrot.
...any reports of looters?
This dam was very dry for a long time. Think about ground that has gotten dry....it cracks. In a dam that fills up rapidly after a drought it is very, very dangerous because water rushes into those cracks and creates holes, on top of that this dam broke the spillway causing craters on the other side and erosion then went over the emergency spillway eroding the dam from there also. Both sides might be compromised not just one.
This dam could have leaks going through it and it is still to wet to see. If in the days ahead those leaks get bigger and break.....if you let people back in below the dam....well you get the picture. They need months of dry weather to fix this situation and they are going to get more rain.
This whole thing reminds me of the last half of Atlas shrugged.
Yes, it does. Should be required reading. That’s just one on my list.
They were correct. Lakes had evaporated.
California was bone dry. Millions of trees dead. Orchards and evergreens.
On the opposite side of our globe, there has been snow in deserts of the Arab world.
Interesting times.
180,000 people evacuated with no notice and no prospect of return is Front Page news.
The danger was the uncontrolled overflow. That has stopped. The dam itself is in no danger of failing.
I see no reason to keep the people away from their homes.
When the water begins rising again, then perhaps another (more orderly) evacuation could begin.
The rain begins anew tomorrow evening.
A real danger is that something unexpected, that hasn't been identified for its flaws, will be what causes calamity.
“This whole thing reminds me of the last half of Atlas shrugged.”
I have had Atlas Shrugged collecting dust on my bookshelf for years but never read it. I will start today.
Apparently, you haven’t seen any video footage or pics of the damage to the spillway, ground erosion and damage to surrounding roads. That dam and spillway are severely compromised.
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