Oroville Dam spillway may fail; evacuations ordered downstream – WBNews

OROVILLE — An emergency evacuation was ordered for Oroville-area residents by the state Department of Water Resources, which predicted that the auxiliary spillway at the Oroville Dam could fail Sunday night.

The department issued the evacuation advisory around 4:40 p.m. Sunday, just four hours after holding a news conference during which they said they didn’t anticipate such problems.

The initial prediction held that it would fail within the hour; around 6:30 p.m. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said they acted fast to rather be “safe than sorry.”

“There are efforts being made to avert the crisis,” Honea said at a press conference. “I didn’t have the luxury seeing if everything was going to be OK — we needed to get people moving quickly in order to save lives in case the worst-case scenario came to fruition.”

He said they are looking into ways to shore up the spillway such as using helicopters to “drop rocks into the crevice.”

Honea said they’d drastically increased the amount of water allowed out of the main spillway, from 55,000 feet of water per second to 100,000. Earlier in the day, officials said the water was about 8 inches above the crest — by evening that was down to 2 inches, Honea said.

The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a flash flood and dam failure warning for Butte County at 4:35 p.m. Nearby Sutter County also ordered an evacuation for communities in the Feather River-Yuba City basin.

“At 4:19 p.m., dam operators reported a hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway,” the agency stated. “Operation of the auxiliary spillway has led to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure.”

“The concern is that erosion at the head of the auxiliary spillway threatens to undermine the concrete weir and allow large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville,” said a release from the water department. “Those potential flows could exceed the capacity of downstream channels.”

The city of Oroville has about 16,000 residents. Karl Swanberg, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said a failure of the spillway could potentially affect most of the town.

“It’s quite a large town,” he said. “This is an ongoing situation that could get worse.”

Doug Carlson, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources, said “severe erosion” occurred in the spillway Sunday afternoon. He said they were still organizing how information will be disseminated this evening.

“Some of us are still here in Sacramento,” he said. “We were told not to go up there because of the potential for flooding and roads being out.”

Residents were alerted to the evacuation through reverse 911 calls, a local man told NBC Bay Area.

An immediate evacuation from low areas from Oroville to Gridley was ordered, as the Feather River will experience rapid river rises in the event of a spillway failure.

Later, that order was expanded as far as Marysville and Yuba County. Those in Oroville were urged to head north toward Chico. Evacuation centers were being set up there and in Paradise.

“This is not a drill,” a bulletin stated. “Repeat this is not a drill … Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life.”

Video footage showed streams of traffic heading out of the Oroville area, with heavy congestion on Highway 70.

Affected areas include Oroville, Palermo, Gridley, Thermalito, South Oroville, Oroville Dam, Oroville East and Wyandotte.

The flash flood warning is in effect until 4:15 p.m. Monday.

“The next several hours will be crucial in determining whether the concrete structure at the head of the auxiliary spillway remains intact and prevents larger, uncontrolled flows,” stated the water department in a 6 p.m. update.

The emergency spillway had not been used before at the reservoir, which opened in 1968. The structure is a key feature in a series of dams and canals that deliver water to 25 million Californians, including many in San Jose, Livermore, Pleasanton, Fremont, Union City, and Los Angeles.

State officials were hoping to avoid using the emergency spillway, which is basically a dirt hillside, because it would send tons of dirt, rock and silt cascading into the Feather River and then downstream into the Delta.

But dam operators decided early Saturday morning they needed to ease the beating on the main spillway.

Oroville Dam, built into a rocky canyon 70 miles north of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is a critical part of California’s drinking water system, providing water for 23 million people and vast stretches of farmland.

At 770 feet tall, the structure that holds back the Feather River is taller than the Washington Monument and as thick as 10 football fields at its base. Lake Oroville, at 10 miles long, is the second largest reservoir in California behind Shasta Lake.

Check back for updates to this breaking story.

#OrovilleSpillway #Evacuation #Oroville
twitter.com/CountyofButte/…Services to illegal aliens and their dependents costs Californians $25 .3 billion per yr. Cost to repair dam $200 million est. #OrovilleDam My prayers to the #oroville area as they become waterlogged. ?#Catastrophe – 100,000 People Are Evacuating Over “Imminent Failure” Of #California ‘s #OrovilleDam | Zero Hedge zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-1…Heard that water level at Oroville has reached high level and now causing evacuation #Oroville #FeatherRiver #becareful #StaySafe As Oroville Dam spillway threatens to fail… CHP opens SB Hwy 70 TO NB traffic to help with evacuations | @NBCLA #OrovilleDam http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g1OdUXAAAXW5m.jpg#PrayersUp #OrovilleDam by Sacramento, CA ??Due to dam overflowing…evacuations..some in path..PPl/animals pls pray twitter.com/TotalZombie/st…cnn not reporting, there too busy bashing trump to report news ha ha ha #Oroville Spillway on massive #OrovilleDam in California could fail within the hour. Evacuations ordered. rep-am.com/news/national/… http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g1J1AWAAA4R9D.jpgCity of Yuba City strongly recommends an evacuation of all residents immediately. Travel options are as follows:… fb.me/31JnST5Tna minute ago all kinds of bots started retweeting #oroville evacuation warnings, then complained about Sweet Caroline #GRAMMYs -what a worldOroville Dam Spillway Imminent Failure Live Coverage #liveupdate #OrovilleDam #OrovilleSpillway youtube.com/watch?v=yF3j82…Prayers for #Oroville please be safe twitter.com/althomelandsec…DETAILS: #DWR use emergency spillway instead of damaged one to release water. #OrovilleDam on.rt.com/830b …Authorities order residents in low-lying areas of #Oroville Calif to evacuate as #OrovilleDam is predicted to fail. abcn.ws/2kmbE6q http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g0jDPVcAEQyun.pngFor background on #OrovilleDam check out entry @WaterEdFdn ‘s #cawater encyclopedia watereducation.org/aquapedia/orov…Maybe all the richie Riches will pass the hat before they leave the grammys tonite . NOT .#BREAKING There is a Flash Flood Warning for the Oroville area until 4:15p PST Monday due to failure of the auxiliary spillway. #OrovilleDam http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g1F5yWQAA76kU.jpg#BREAKING There is a Flash Flood Warning for the Oroville area until 4:15p PST Monday due to failure of the auxiliary spillway. #OrovilleDam http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g1F55WYAIelNd.jpg#OrovilleDam Oroville Sheriff still hoping they can reduce the pressure on the Oroville Dam spillway to avoid complete failure twitter.com/jilltucker/sta…Praying for the residents in Oroville & surrounding Oroville Dam who could be evacuated too due to Oroville Dam water overflow. #OrovilleDam Disabled resident evacuating #Oroville urged to call 911 twitter.com/countyofbutte/…Just saw to military type helicopters headed in direction of Oroville #OrovilleSpillway #OrovilleDam Holy crap. #OrovilleDam itself is good but aux spillway is in danger of failure. Check the hashtag for info. twitter.com/PeterGleick/st…#USA , #Kalifornien , #Oroville : #Staudamm droht zu brechen. Evakuierung Zehntausender ist in vollem Gange.

>> LIVE: youtu.be/yhzKVdSnPmg http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g1CyDWMAMJSWh.jpgNon engineer here. Makes no sense that #OrovilleDam is earth and not concrete. Praying for #Oroville .Dam it, @andrewklavan ! Just when we thought we were unscathed, the #KlavanlessWeekend strikes.
#OrovilleSpillway #OrovilleDam i can’t wait for this #Oroville mess to be safely resolved so i can watch the shit out of this. twitter.com/holyaine/statu…#OrovilleDam spillway expected to fail..thousands evacuating abc7news.com/1751364/ via @abc7newsbayarea
#FirstResponders #DisasterResponse #OrovilleDam Emergency Spillway Failure, Possible DAM Failure, 100,000 Evacuated LIVE ON YOUTUBE youtube.com/watch?v=yhzKVd… View to valley http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g04HwUcAEUDh6.jpg#oroville #OrovilleSpillway twitter.com/Cal_OES/status…Video de represa de #Oroville / #OrovilleDam , la más alta de EEUU:

#BREAKING : The erosion is not advancing as quickly as expected. #oroville http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g07LBXAAUqCDg.jpgMeanwhile, in #Oroville …
#Perspective
#GRAMMYs goodbye Californians RFLOLDWR plans to use helicopters to drop rocks to fill in the gouge in the Oroville Auxilliary Spillway to stabilize.abc7news.com/news/evacuatio…

#evacuate #emergency #OrovilleSpillway #FoxNews #CNN #RedCross Residents evacuating Oroville can bring small animals to the shelter at the Silver @SilverFair . #OrovilleSpillway @ButteSheriff @CA_DWR Large animal shelter open at Camelot Equestrian Park,1985 Clark Road for residents evacuating #Oroville . #spillway @ButteSheriff #OrovilleDam yes the dam is going but turning off the Bounce show MUST go on…#OrovilleDam .Blame every congressman if Dam collapses for giving Tax breaks to people that don’t need them ignoring infrastructure!???This is some scary stuff…, my heart is with #Oroville twitter.com/nbcbayarea/sta…We will provide more specific information later on evacuations. (3/3) @ButteSheriff @ca_dwr #Oroville #California Dam Fail!!! twitter.com/cdinatl/status…#California #Oroville twitter.com/NickMerianos/s…All low lying areas around the Feather River: Gridley, Biggs, Yuba City, Loma Rica, and areas south of Butte County along the River. (2/3)EVACUATION AREA: Downtown Oroville and Thermalito, the areas south of Lincoln Blvd on the west side of Lincoln to Ophir Road. (1/3)BREAKING: Evacuation CHAOS as America’s tallest dam FAILS putting THOUSANDS of lives at risk #OrovilleDam bit.ly/2kmoxxu http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g01O5VYAAfXA5.jpgOfficials ordered residents near #OrovilleDam to #evacuate “hazardous situation developing” #emergency #Spillway has severely eroded. #kcra t.co

Really. Now a shooter in Oroville?? #OrovilleDam Thanks
Q: Would total #OrovilleSpillway failure mimic dam failure?
“@MayorCabaldon : As of 5:55 pm, #OrovilleDam situation changes by moment” http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g0v6QVMAAhX6F.jpgLivingOnChi: RT LuciHoneychurch: THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! OROVILLE CALIFORNIA!
#EVACUATE #Emergency #OrovilleDam #Oro … twitter.com/i/web/status/8…The water is slowing. The emergency spillway is still holding. #OrovilleDam #ElderCare #HomeCare #OrovilleSpillway #disaster #orospillway #OrovilleDam #CAStorm #Spillway #FAIL #ButteCounty #LakeOroville #FeatherRiver Live Stream #OrovilleDam spillway here coverage ——> youtube.com/watch?v=yF3j82…For background on #orovilledam chrck out @WaterEdFdn ‘s water encyclopedia entry #CA water watereducation.org/aquapedia/orov…#OrovilleSpillway : Assistance w/ #Evacuation #Horses #Equine #Oroville .
twitter.com/CallMichele/st…Disabled residents evacuating from #Oroville who cannot get friends or family to assist, should call 9-1-1 for an ambulance. @ButteSheriff Article w/ map and estimates of when water would reach different areas if/when #OrovilleDam breaks. No map avail for emerg spillway breach. twitter.com/ryansabalow/st…Where is @realDonaldTrump with news about #Oroville ? This may become a major disaster never seen! He’s MIA!!! #Failure #PrayForOroville #OrovilleDam Town of 16k in the path of failing dam twitter.com/judywbrandt/st…Meanwhile, in #oroville … #Persoective #GRAMMYs #Live #Oroville #Dam #Emergency Spillway Limited #Evacuation Ordered. bit.ly/2kmrnSY http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4g0j3IWcAAi95J.jpg#Marysville is in the valley … #evacuate … #Oroville twitter.com/tweetie0817/st…Pray for Oroville #OrovilleDam Y’all following this dam situation in California? This could get bad. #OrovilleDam #OROVILLE #DAM EVACUATIONS and TRUMP NAZIs are tweeting ABOUT ILLEGALS and how they HOPE EVERYONE DIES and DROWNS. TRUE CHRISTIANS t.co

#OrovilleDam
Oroville, CA !!EMERGENCY EVACUATION ORDERED!! – !!EMERGENCY SPILLWAY FAI… youtu.be/yhzKVdSnPmg via @YouTube Man that’s gonna’ be an awesome sight when it goes .youtube.com/watch?v=lHn-U3…
VIDEO:
#OrovilleDam Breaches Emergency Spillway ! | Feb 12, 2017

#Oroville
#CAwx PLS RT RT RT The entire city of Oroville (15,500 people) has been issued an emergency evacuation order #OrovilleDam .@RT_com shared tallest US #dam in #California might collapse, immediate evacuation ordered.

MORE: rt.com/usa/377147-oro… #OrovilleDam Inminente colapso del vertedero auxiliar en la presa de #Oroville . En desarrollo fb.me/21M4wMB2Z#oroville . prayers for Oroville immergency dam failingThese Trumpkins are sick. Obamacare did cover their mental illness. To bad they will be without help soon. #CA10 #OrovilleDam #Oroville twitter.com/roach/status/8…