Engineers are LOSING the battle to lower water behind California’s crumbling dam by 50ft before new storm hits on Wednesday – after admitting the waters have only dropped 11ft in 24 hours
Water level at Lake Oroville has only been reduced by 11ft since it reached its capacity on Saturday afternoon
Department of Water Resources had hoped to lower it by 50ft before storms hit as soon as Wednesday night
Water is being drained from the lake down the damaged main spillway at a rate of 75,000 gallons per second
It still may not be enough to lower the water levels sufficiently before rain hits which will cause it to rise again
200,000 residents in California may be displaced for weeks as emergency services race to repair spillways
They left in ‘pure chaos’ when a sudden evacuation order was issued on Sunday after days of assurances from officials that the situation was safe
Environmental groups predicted the exact chain of events in 2003 but had their fears ignored by officials
Now officials are working to patch up the erosion hole on the main spillway so it can return to normal function
By James Wilkinson and Liam Quinn and Gareth Davies For
DailyMail.com
14 February 2017
The brimming lake threatening to topple California’s crumbling Oroville Dam has been drained by just 11 feet since it overflowed on Saturday, a worrying fraction of the 50ft it needs to be reduced by before more rain hits the region this week.
The current water level of Lake Oroville is 889ft, 11ft less than its 900ft capacity which was reached on Saturday, pushing water over an emergency spillway which began to collapse under the pressure.
Engineers are draining the lake at a rate of 750,000 gallons per second which lowers the level by about a foot every three hours but they are not moving fast enough to bring it down to their target of 850ft by Wednesday.
The dam’s main spillway, which would normally offset rising water levels in the lake, has been compromised by a gaping hole caused by erosion which engineers are trying to fix.
If the lake exceeds its capacity before the hole is repaired, it could destroy the emergency spillway and send a 30ft wall of water cascading into Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties.
Some 200,000 residents were evacuated in anticipation of such an event on Sunday and have taken refuge in make-shift shelters where they could remain for weeks before it is safe to return.
They fled when authorities were finally forced to issue an emergency evacuation order after days of claiming the situation was safe.
The evacuees have since told of their hurried escape, describing the scene of entire communities fleeing in their packed up cars as ‘pure chaos’.
The Rest…HERE
