California Dam Threat

I wish the best for the people affected too, seems like California has had more than its share of droughts, floodings, fires, and mudslides. :(
 
One of my grandsons lives in the area with his mom. They have evacuated. So scary. My sister lived there for many years and just sold her house a year ago. Her old town was given a two hour evacuation notice late this afternoon. The traffic is bumper to bumper with people trying to get to higher ground. We were over that way today visiting our eldest grandson,his wife and our greatgrandson. They lived in Oroville,right near the dam,last year for a few months. Granddaughter in law was just saying today that she wished they still lived in that park,that it was her favorite (Grandson moves all the time with his job so they live in a 44 ft. 5th wheel and live in mobile home parks. Thinking if she`s seeing the news tonight she`s probably happy that they aren`t living there right now.
 

By the way,it is not actually the dam that is in danger of failing-it is the emergency spillway. It has not been needed in years but now it is and they discovered that it has a large hole in it. They are currently trying to have helicopters drop boulders into the hole to prevent erosion and prevent what would be a 30foot wall of water bursting through.
 
I'm outraged over this. I can't believe this was allowed to happen. Lives, animals and property in danger. Water wasted.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
By the way,it is not actually the dam that is in danger of failing-it is the emergency spillway. ...
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I read that in the linked article too but not sure I believe that in the literal sense. It is the emergency spillway, not the normal spillway, and as I understand it an emergency spillway is used as a last ditch effort to save the dam, which as I understand it has water overflowing. That ain't good for the dam. It might hold with water overflowing but that's a scary situation for the dam itself... if it wasn't why would you need an emergency spillway, in other words why wouldn't you just allow for overflow to handle situations where the normal/main spillway couldn't handle things?
 
California is quickly becoming a land of extremes...weather wise. They have gone from severe drought to high flood dangers in just a year or two. This Oroville dam issue is just the latest in a series of weather related events that seem to be occurring in that state on a frequent basis.

Anyone who still denies that Climate Change is occurring is Not paying attention.
 
RadishRose said:
I think there's also an infrastructure issue; old concrete degraded by erosion.
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I agree about the infrastructure. I swear this is typical California. NOT putting the money where it was needed. I heard on the news they were talking about how the dam etc are "inspected". Well something went really flipping wrong with their inspections! That's pretty obvious at this point.
 
I get bored and will check on the "broadcastify" website to see if anything is happening on the police feeds there. Saw the spillway issue posted shortly after they announced the evacuation and then went to their local TV news to see things as they happen. Thank God, they were smart to fully open the spillway! Now, here is my question: In this world of 24 hour TV news coverage via CNN and FOX, why didn't they even notify the public until, in some cases, the next day? We used to see car chases and other things on the dedicated news channels with live local feeds, but now it seems, unless there is massive carnage, they seem to be completely immersed in politics. I, for one, am tired of the second by second immersion into a subject we have so little control over and want to see them go back to things that immediately effect the public.
 
I have cousins out there who have evacuated. Unfortunately, their son is a deputy sheriff and has to stay in the middle of it all. I will be anxious about them till this is over.

Prayers will also be going out to the Swift Water Rescue Squads who are out there putting their lives at great risk to save people. There are so many people who don't heed the warnings not to cross flooded creeks or roads and end up in a swamped car and have to be rescued.
 
hauntedtexan said:
I get bored and will check on the "broadcastify" website to see if anything is happening on the police feeds there. Saw the spillway issue posted shortly after they announced the evacuation and then went to their local TV news to see things as they happen. Thank God, they were smart to fully open the spillway! Now, here is my question: In this world of 24 hour TV news coverage via CNN and FOX, why didn't they even notify the public until, in some cases, the next day? We used to see car chases and other things on the dedicated news channels with live local feeds, but now it seems, unless there is massive carnage, they seem to be completely immersed in politics. I, for one, am tired of the second by second immersion into a subject we have so little control over and want to see them go back to things that immediately effect the public.
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I agree. They report on politics first- anything else to them is filler.
 
On the contrary, as soon as officials determined the risk of erosion was substantial, the evacuation warning WAS PUBLICIZED. Every local newsstation, including the ones in the SF Bay Area where there is no 'skin in the game', covered the story almost to the exclusion of other local, national and global news at every scheduled program (one of our local stations broadcasts 14 hrs of news every 24-hr day). Radio stations also joined in.

Please understand how dams fill up. It isn't the rain, it's the run-off. The ground has to become completely soaked, unable to absorb any more water, and THEN the water goes into a dam. It may take up to a week after the rain stops for the run-off to finally end.

It's the PATTERN of rain that can create problems, not just the amount. We normally receive one or two major rainstorms from the "Pineapple Express" tropical moisture that starts in HI. This winter is not yet over - the rainy season doesn't end until May 1st - and we have already gotten four PE rainstorms.

Another moderate rainstorm is scheduled to hit Wed 15th, so they are trying to drain the dam because more runoff is going to come into the dam starting Friday and ending somewhere around the 19th-21st, depending on when the rain stops.

Should the State Water District have constructed a back-up spillway? Probably. But the SWD's customers, the majority purchaser being the Southern CA Metro Water District, didn't want to pay for it. As a result, the dam went operational in 1968 as we see it.

The failure of the main spillway is similar to the process of how potholes form in highways. It's really just a very, very large pothole.

The flood danger is because we are in the middle of our rainy season. No repair work can really begin until it stops raining and the soil dries out. And it will be several months before that happens, based on how our total rainfall is accumulating (on average, it's currently about 120+% of normal for the entire state).

The dam is not the problem; it's fine. It's that they can't control where the excess water should go. In high rainfall times, all dams (and reservoirs) will release excess water downstream. This has been going on since late December 2016 at various times and places throughout Northern CA.

Last winter, the El Nino effect gave us normal rainfall. As often happens, this year is a La Nina effect, lasting through February (we can only hope it behaves so). In La Nina winters, it is an even 50-50 chance Northern CA will see a wet winter. In the years the weathercasters have been tracking the El Nino/La Nina cycles, it has happened exactly 50% of the time that La Nina has given Northern CA a drier-than-average winter vs a wetter-than-average winter.

The complexities of warming global temperatures and oceanic currents is just beginning to be studied. No firm projections are possible; only generalities and a range of odds. We'll be able to get specific forecasts someday, but certainly not any time soon.
 
Kitties said:
I'm outraged over this. I can't believe this was allowed to happen. Lives,
animals and property in danger. Water wasted.
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So sad to see Live Oak under water!
Spent many happy days as a child in Live Oak with Tante Rose and Onkel Rudolf, also visited Gridley many times (German farming community in those days)!
 
Kitties said:
I'm outraged over this. I can't believe this was allowed to happen. Lives, animals and property in danger. Water wasted.
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California, like most states, has Not been able to keep its Infrastructure in good shape. The California state debt is almost 455 Billion dollars, and the demands on its revenues for the various social programs, etc., is placing infrastructure spending in a very low priority. Much of our infrastructure is well past its intended lifespan, and the states are having to "gamble" on how long things like roads, bridges, and Dams will last before they begin to fail. Unless, and until, revenues begin to exceed spending, we can only expect things like this to continue happening.
 
Don M. said:
California, like most states, has Not been able to keep its Infrastructure in good shape. The California state debt is almost 455 Billion dollars, and the demands on its revenues for the various social programs, etc., is placing infrastructure spending in a very low priority. Much of our infrastructure is well past its intended lifespan, and the states are having to "gamble" on how long things like roads, bridges, and Dams will last before they begin to fail. Unless, and until, revenues begin to exceed spending, we can only expect things like this to continue happening.
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Good points.
 
I too agree with Don's post. I wonder where all the money goes. Maybe I know where some goes. I wonder too if the government is as top heavy as I see this corporation is that I work for. If this is a model for the government, I think we are certainly in trouble.
 
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