1/5 SLIDES © Provided by The Telegraph 2/5 SLIDES © Provided by The Telegraph 3/5 SLIDES © Provided by The Telegraph 4/5 SLIDES © Provided by The Telegraph 5/5 SLIDES © Provided by The Telegraph 5/5 SLIDES California officials were warned over Oroville Dam flood risk, it has emerged, sparking anger among the 180,000 citizens evacuated from the area. In 2005, environmentalists warned that there was a considerable risk of the highest dam in the US, the Oroville Dam, failing. According to local media reports, the warnings were ignored, leading to the evacuation of 180,000 people over the weekend. Ron Stork, a policy director with Friends of the River, said the officials were urged to address the issue but took no action. We urged them to put concrete on the spillway. Our argument was that without a proper spillway, the hillside would wash away and cause catastrophic flooding,” Mr Stork told CNN. The dam itself was said to have not been in any danger of failing, but the spillway – the channel that relieves excess water from the reservoir – was eroded as water continually poured down it for 38 hours. Large pieces of concrete were missing from the spillway, which helps to withhold hundreds of billions of gallons of water, making authorities fear a potential breach which could have created a 30-foot-high wave. Tens of thousands of people have still not returned to their homes as engineers attempt to rectify the situation, ensuring that the flood risk will never…more detail
