The dam is the tallest in the United States, exceeding even Hoover Dam. It stands 770 feet, 44 feet taller than Hoover. Lake Oroville is the second-largest reservoir in the state, behind Shasta Lake, which is the center of the federal water project that serves California.
Flow from heavy rains has damaged the reservoir’s spillway, creating dramatic scenes of muddy torrents gushing over a concrete chute marred by a massive sinkhole.
Officials have stressed that the dam itself suffered no damage and that the spillway problems don’t pose a imminent threat to the public. Still, they have been frantically working to reduce the amount of water in the Lake Oroville reservoir, which is near capacity. It’s now at about 96% of capacity, and more water has been flowing in than is draining out.
If the reservoir exceeds capacity, it could damage the dam. Officials plan to avoid that, if necessary, by using an emergency spillway to release water. It’s unclear whether they will have to do that.
10 Comments
eric3579says...View from above https://youtu.be/r-b02rXr1c8
Water now starting to come over emergency spillway
http://www.kcra.com/article/water-begins-to-spill-over-oroville-emergency-spillway/8732032
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/11/1632619/-Daily-Bucket-Oroville-Lake-is-overflowing-its-banks-for-the-first-time-ever
eric3579says...More recent videos of emergency spillway
https://youtu.be/bephol1Ormg
(edit and updated w/ better video)
and now flow from emergency spillway at the river https://youtu.be/Gchf6COGAKQ
eric3579says...#OrovilleSpillway for current tweets
Orville is under mandatory evacuation as they fear the emergency spillway may fail.
http://www.ktvu.com/weather/weather-news-headlines/235380255-story
Why the spillway may fail from California Dept. of water resources. https://www.periscope.tv/w/1yoKMeddkVeKQ
video
http://www.kcra.com/article/evacuation-orders-issued-for-low-levels-of-oroville/8735215
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/evacuations-underway-as-oroville-dam-prepares-for-failure-875775043662
ForgedRealitysays...This looks to have been filmed with a Mavic Pro. Amazing, AMAZING quadcopter. I have one, and it's rad.
Paybacksays...I've been thinking of getting a quadcopter w/camera. I understand it's fairly reasonable for what you get.
Is it easy to use for a noob? I'm pretty decent with those $50 USB-chargeable ones from a flying standpoint.
This looks to have been filmed with a Mavic Pro. Amazing, AMAZING quadcopter. I have one, and it's rad.
SFOGuysays...For reference: flows at the their highest out of the spillways were exceeding the flows at Niagra Falls---
And---in 2005, 3 environmental groups tried to get the State to concrete armor the emergency spillway---they protested it would be too expensive and not necessary...And of course, with the main spillway out of action, the emergency spillway has started to erode as well---and 200,000 people have been evacuated. To my understanding---and I'm not a hydraulic engineer---the risk with the emergency spillway is that the water flowing over the concrete "cap" or "curb" has started to...duh...erode the earth below the cap. If it erodes too far, the concrete cap will tumble off, a 30 foot wall of water will cascade over the edge, the the dam will start to erode...
shagen454says...I'll always remember Oroville, even though it was a long time ago that I last visited the place. Even though the town is pretty shite, it's the one place I remember being able to see the Milky Way with the naked eye; breathtaking, millions of stars. I counted 17 shooting stars that night, hanging out with two hot babes, drinking a bottle of stolen whiskey. It was also my one and only close encounter (so far) with a big fucking rattlesnake.
ForgedRealitysays...Yeah it's really easy. I'm impressed that you can fly those tiny office toys. They're way too fidgety for me because they're so small.
This one is ultra stable and easy to control. It has numerous flight modes that you can use to even partially or completely automate flight. I've only had it a couple of weeks and haven't had a ton of flight time yet, but I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
I've been thinking of getting a quadcopter w/camera. I understand it's fairly reasonable for what you get.
Is it easy to use for a noob? I'm pretty decent with those $50 USB-chargeable ones from a flying standpoint.
newtboysays...What I keep reading is the lake is actually a maximum of 900 ft deep, and the lake is currently about 835 ft deep after weeks of high volume draining.
Here's a current view of the spillway damage....
*related=https://videosift.com/video/Oroville-Spillway-Damage-Rebar-Oroville-Dam-2-27-17
siftbotsays...Oroville Spillway Damage, Rebar?, Oroville Dam 2-27-17 has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy.
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