EVACUATION ORDERED: Lower levels around South Central Butte County (Oroville/Marysville)

[Tyler]

The auxiliary spillway for the Oroville Dam is about to fail. A mandatory evacuation has been ordered for people in lower levels around South central Butte County for potential flooding. If you are in the area, or know anyone who is, please get out safely!

Link

[/qAn evacuation has been ordered for low-lying levels of Oroville and several areas downstream from Lake Oroville, the Butte County Sheriff's Office said.



"Officials are anticipating a failure of the Auxiliary Spillway at Oroville Dam within the next 60 minutes (5:45 p.m.)," the California Department of Water Resources said on Facebook. The Yuba County Office of Emergency Services said on Facebook an evacuation has been for "all Yuba County on the valley floor."



The city of Marysville and Yuba County have been ordered to evacuate, the Marysville Police Department tweeted.



Residents are being asked to evacuate north, toward Chico. DWR said residents in other cities should follow the orders of local law enforcement.



The sheriff's office posted the following on it's Facebook page: "A hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. Operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville.

"In response to this developing situation, DWR is increasing water releases to 100,000 cubic feet per second.

"Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered.

"This in NOT A Drill. This in NOT A Drill. This in NOT A Drill."

An evacuation shelter has been set up at:

• Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico at 2357 Fair Street
• Colusa County Fairgrounds in Colusa at 1303 10th Street

Butte County officials said Nelson Avenue is closed at Table Mountain Boulevard due to on going road construction. A California Office of Emergency Services spokesperson said the potential failure of the emergency spillway is "potentially catastrophic."



DWR said there has been severe erosion on the emergency spillway, not the main spillway which was damaged by concrete erosion on Tuesday.

DWR officials are planning to increase water releases from the main spillway to 100,000 cfs so that no more water will come down the emergency spillway.

The main spillway can handle water flows up to 250,000 cfs. DWR said the increased flows will further damage the main spillway.

The Sacramento Fire Department said the emergency spillway's failure could have downstream affects in Sacramento. Water levels could rise and go over levees in some areas, causing flooding.

 

[NTXFJR]

Looks to be serious alright. I ran across a youtube video this morning showing it as well. I don't know the area, but what's the possible seriousness of snow melt contributing to this when it starts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhayGDxMks

 

[Abercrombie FJR]

I was also watching several videos on this earlier. Some didn't seem to think there was any problem and others thought everyone should run for the hills.

 

[FJRay]

Fingers crossed and prayers for those in danger. Head for the high ground quickly.

 

[RossKean]

Oh Shit! I hope that it is just authorities being extra cautious (as they should). Good luck to everyone downstream.

I can't imagine what a dam failure for a structure this large would do!

 

[puppychow]

Looks pretty dicey, but I hope he evacuations turn out only to be due to an abundance of caution.

There are some forum members in that area. I hope they got out safely.

 

[Bounce]

Anyone want to narrow that down to a specific state?

 

[Ignacio]

Anyone want to narrow that down to a specific state?

California man. It's north of Sacramento.

A good helicopter video doing orbits around the place to get a sense of how this thing is designed, what's failed, the MASSIVE amount of energy and scale of the spilling water, and the town down river under a second much smaller reservoir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7OJVpMjdc0

 

[exskibum]

Depends on the news source to understand exactly what the engineers are suggesting might fail - (1) breach of the dam causing a surge down the Feather River or (2) a failure (or augmented main spillway release of > 100,000 cu.ft./sec. to avoid a threatened failure) of the emergency/auxiliary spillway which results in a too large surge down the Feather R. It appears to be the latter (number 2) after finally hearing a spokesman interviewed who understands and can CLEARLY explain the current problem.

Even though a dam failure is not the fear, it is still a BIG problem if a wall of water comes down a river channel that cannot hold that volume. A lot of people in the evac zone are heading south and west on 70, 99, etc. this evening.

I'm in East Sacramento house sitting, and my place is upland and out of the threatened area. Bluestreek and Mrs. are, OTOH, in the affected area. Really hoping that the dawn breaks with good news, but this is a huge PITA, at the least, for those in the path. Much good mojo to those affected that this be nothing more than a large annoyance.

 

[Tiger_993]

It's a very bad situation. They are evacuating the jails, hospitals, and 150k residents. Live stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF3j82YEsTo

 

[escapefjrtist]

Simply devastating...hope the main spillway holds up to the increased flows needed. Sending good thoughts to those fleeing the potential flooding areas.

Thanks for the links, been following it on the local news as well.

--G

 

[Mount Rainier]

More info here updated as of 3 hrs ago.

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-live-updates-oroville-dam-watch-the-latest-official-update-on-the-1486954758-htmlstory.html

 

[Tyler]

Bluestreek and Mrs. are, OTOH, in the affected area.

I reached out to them and they have evacuated and are safe.

 

[Bugnatr]

Great coverage on the local news, my wife's family lives in Yuba City on the Feather River 30 miles below the dam.They were going to come up here but couldn't make it due to closed roads and a traffic nightmare. The good news is the lake has dropped below the top of the spillway around 9 pm so the immediate dam failure is not what it was at 4:30 this afternoon. They are dropping bags of rocks tonight by helicopter into the hole in the emergency spillway.

 

[Bounce]

Anyone want to narrow that down to a specific state?

California man. It's north of Sacramento.

Thanks. Saw that it was in the CA forum when I looked today. Yesterday it was just another stream of new posts so I didn't have (mental?) context. The local context of counties and such didn't place it for me. I guess CA is just another state in my perception, so I don't watch CA weather unless I know I'll be traveling there.

Hope everyone remains safe.

{DickWiseCrack}I thought CA needed water.{/DickWiseCrack}

 

[PapaUtah]

This is just from the recent rains...the snowmelt hasn't started in earnest yet...this will be an ongoing issue for some time to come.

 

[rogdeb]

They have till Thursday to get a temp fix in place before the next round of storms arrive. Deb contacted Cyndi (Bluestreek) and they Hotel'd it for the night.

Lets hope the (primitive) boulder drops work.

 

[Ignacio]

Hope everyone remains safe.
{DickWiseCrack}I thought CA needed water.{/DickWiseCrack}

It does....in areas south of this. Kinda like what happens in Amarillo is the same thing as Austin since they're both Texas, right?

This year was/is a big catchup for 'em.

I just heard that it was a dam built in the 60's back when the Gipper was the Gov, the first time the emergency spillway was ever used, and not one that could be tested. Seems Mother Nature may have found an error in the design....or course I'm sure the final analysis will show multiple things.

Sounds like they made a call as things were cresting and couldn't be sure it wouldn't cascade as the secondary emergency system was also tested for the first time (you could see them pouring fresh concrete several days ago in one of the videos to reduce the risk of erosion).

Nobody hurt so far...that's great!

 

[Ignacio]

It seems as of Monday morning the crisis and risk has abated significantly. They believe levels have dropped enough and will drop further to account for a storm later this week. They still have a damaged emergency spillway to contend with.

Evacuations are never good, but to get 200,000 people out of an area is always a significant feat.