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Oroville Dam Spillway Failure: Nearly 190,000 Ordered to Evacuate

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Mandatory evacuations remained in effect Monday afternoon for 
nearly 190,000 people in Northern California after a spillway 
serving the country's tallest dam developed a hole that 
threatened to release uncontrolled floodwaters, officials said.

The emergency spillway off the Oroville Dam was the second to 
fail in a matter of days, after the dam's primary spillway 
developed a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole last week.

Officials and contractors were working feverishly to get as much 
water out of Lake Oroville as possible by Thursday, when another 
round of storms is expected to sweep across the area.

The acting director of California's Department of Water 
Resources, Bill Croyle, told reporters that it was unclear what 
caused the erosion in the emergency spillway, but he said he 
expected significant progress in the agency's goal of dropping 
lake levels by 50 feet.

The dam itself was not damaged. But because its water levels are 
so high following heavy rain, the emergency spillway could 
unleash a wall of water onto communities and rivers below if it 
collapses.

Sean Dennis was one thousands of residents trying to make the 
gridlocked journey to safer ground.

"We both were kind of shocked. Nothing like this has ever 
happened," said Dennis, 30, a chef from Yuba City, who recalled 
the moment he and his wife found out they had to leave. "We just 
grabbed what we could."

Dennis spoke while driving his family to a hotel in Willows, a 
journey that had already taken five hours despite its being only 
55 miles away.

Cars quickly piled up at gas stations and on routes out of the 
evacuation zone after the order was given Sunday.

"What was usually a 20-minute drive took two hours," said 
Heather Sutton, 22, a Yuba Community College student. "It was 
bumper to bumper. ... You can almost see the panic happening."

Sutton recalled telling her friend before they evacuated that 
"we need to grab photos, anything that has sentimental value." 
Everything else was left behind, she said.

The sudden evacuation panicked residents, who scrambled to get 
their belongings into cars and then grew angry as they sat in 
bumper-to-bumper traffic hours after the order was given.

Raj Gill, managing a Shell station where anxious motorists got 
gas and snacks, said his boss told him to close the station and 
flee himself. But he stayed open to feed a steady line of 
customers.

"You can't even move," he said. "I'm trying to get out of here, 
too. I'm worried about the flooding. I've seen the pictures — 
that's a lot of water."

A Red Cross spokeswoman said more than 500 people showed up at 
an evacuation center in Chico.

The shelter had run out of blankets and cots, and a tractor-
trailer with 1,000 more cots was stuck in the gridlock of 
traffic Sunday night, Red Cross shelter manager Pam Deditch said.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, who ordered the evacuations, 
said Monday afternoon that he had no choice but to tell people 
to flee as quickly as possible.

"When this incident occurred, it became apparent that we needed 
to act quickly," he said. "I recognize and appreciate the 
frustration that people who have been evacuated must feel. That 
was not a decision I made lightly."

The order was issued suddenly Sunday after officials spotted the 
damage to the emergency spillway's concrete lip. The auxiliary 
spillway was being used for the first time in almost 50 years, 
according to The Associated Press, because the 770-foot-tall dam 
was full to the brim and its main spillway was damaged by heavy 
rain last week.

It could also breach the network of levees along the way and 
cause problems as far away as Sacramento.

Several state water and government officials told NBC News that 
1 million acre-feet of water could be released, overwhelming the 
Feather River and flooding communities in Butte County, Yuba 
City and Marysville. Kevin Lawson, deputy chief of the 
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said at a 
news conference Sunday night that 188,000 people had been 
ordered to evacuate from those areas.

"We've never seen anything like this in modern times," a state 
water official told NBC News. "This is a worst-case scenario for 
any water management agency, a worst-case nightmare."

Croyle, meanwhile, said he wasn't aware of a 2005 filing with 
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that warned about a 
possible failure with the emergency spillway.

"We're not going to get into recommendations or concerns that 
were voiced in the past," he said.

Three environmental groups — Friends of the River, the Sierra 
Club and the South Yuba River Citizens League — filed the 
document after determining that the dam didn't meet modern 
safety standards. Its emergency spillway needed to be armored 
with concrete, the groups said.

"What nearly happened last night was what I've been fearing," 
Ronald Stork, senior policy advocate at Friends of the River, 
told NBC News. "I thought it was the time to fix it years ago."

>From Sunday night to Monday morning, the water level of Lake 
Oroville had decreased, allowing engineers to assess the damage, 
according to the AP. Officials were still releasing water 
through the main spillway ahead of this week's expected storm.

By midday Monday, officials said, water flows into the lake 
stood at about 45,000 cubic feet per second, with outflows at 
100,000 cubic feet per second.

Sheriff Honea said earlier that the damage could result in a 
"catastrophic failure" of the emergency spillway.

"Although it brings some stability to the situation, there are 
still a lot of unknowns," he told reporters. "We have staff 
looking at the various areas that evacuations have been ordered 
in and making a determination as to what areas are clearly in 
danger and what areas may be less vulnerable."

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-California, said Monday that he'd reached 
out to the White House for assistance but hadn't heard back, 
while California Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency order 
Sunday night to bolster the state's response.

"I've been in close contact with emergency personnel managing 
the situation in Oroville throughout the weekend, and it's clear 
the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing," Brown said. 
"The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to 
deal with this very serious situation."

Sacramento County wasn't expected to be affacted by increasing 
flows from the Feather River into the Sacramento River because 
of a weir (a type of dam) system in place, the county said on 
Twitter on Sunday evening.

The Butte County sheriff's office initially ordered the 
evacuation of an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 people from the 
city of Oroville and several other low-lying communities along 
the Feather River.

"This is NOT a drill," the office said in a statement.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/potentially-catastrophic-
tens-thousands-evacuated-amid-dam-spillway-failure-n720051

--
More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and some of 
California’s largest water agencies rejected concerns that the 
massive earthen spillway at Oroville Dam — at risk of collapse 
Sunday night and prompting the evacuation of 185,000 people — 
could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a catastrophe.

Those agencies included the Metropolitan Water District of 
Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people 
in Los Angeles, San Diego and other areas, along with the State 
Water Contractors, an association of 27 agencies that buy water 
from the state of California through the State Water Project. 
The association includes the Metropolitan Water District, Kern 
County Water Agency, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and 
the Alameda County Water District.
  

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Oroville Dam Spillway Failure: Nearly 190,000 Ordered to Evacuate "But But Sanctuary Cities! Disaster Declaration! Federal Funds! FEMA! Trump!" <morons@sfchronicle.com> - 2017-02-14 12:36 +0100

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