“If [Oroville] California dam failed, people likely stuck”
More likely dead than stuck.
Precisely
I know. We have some mountain property and 3 dirt/gravel roads over the streams with properly installed culverts.
Several years ago, we had tremendous snow and then much rain. The creek, normally a foot deep, rose and washed over the roads. One of them has 2 large culverts side by side with the dirt and gravel built up to be nearly 6 feet higher than the creek. To say it was astonishing to see the damage it did was an understatement.
The waters chewed their way through that road several feet down and pushed all the 50-100+ pound rocks around the exit of the culvert on the other side yards down creek.
Now...and this is a mountain stream mind you! Not a billion gallon lake. I cannot even imagine what’s going to happen once the rain falls. The ground is already saturated and everything will flow straight into that lake.