Johnstown PA type scary $hit

Good luck to you out there

It's 150 miles north, I'm out of harms way ! But when they evac 188,000 people I guess it's a real issue ! Better safe than dead !

I just got back from that area......I am not surprised you are having excess water problems.

A friend called me and said they were going skiing at South Lake Tahoe, and they had extra room in their condo.  He said that the area got 24 feet of snowfall in January....and the skiing would be great.  I had not been skiing in 11 years.....so I went.

We arrived last Monday.......and the "Pineapple Express" blew in and brought us 4 days of rain and wind.  We got 2-3 inches of rain everyday and the weather reports claimed the lower part of the mountains were getting 40-50 mph winds - with up to 150 mph winds at the summit.  We got a few hours of skiing in a light rain/snow and stiff winds on Monday....after that the rain and winds were so strong that most of the lifts were closed.  We must have gotten a foot of rain, and watched about 3 feet of snow melt and flow away.  When we first arrived the porch railing in this photo was buried in snow.....3 days later is was almost completely uncovered.

Family used to live in Quincy / Feather river area. Still have family along the Sacramento river..... Shirt-tail relative has a ski shop in Squaw Valley.....  

I believe there are 3 current issues.

1)  On the normal spillway, a section of concrete that is at the bottom third of the concrete flume washed out - so now the water is splashing out of the flume and washing away a huge amount of soil.

2)  The normal spillway cannot flow as much water out of the reservoir as is coming in.....so the water was beginning to flow out over the emergency spillway.  The emergency spillway has never been used before, and there is concern that the heavy flow will erode a large amount of soil - they were scrambling to remove trees and vegetation (and electric towers) out of the path of the flow - so that they would not be washed downstream and clog the channel.

3)  There is evidently a hole developing in the dam at the emergency spillway, and it could compromise the stability of the dam in the upper area at the emergency spillway.

I have family in the Oroville.
Pray that the spillways do to break down.
If they did the water pressure on the dam itself will be enormous.
In WW2 there were bombers that were outfitted with a special bomb that would skip on the water when released a very low altitude, like a torpedo.
They were trying to destroy the dams in Germany .
The would target the spillway, and with that destroyed the water moving forward to the new exit was put all that water pressure against the dam itself and cause the dam to fail.  Not sure if this would happen at Oroville but it is a concern.

Hope they have a good place to stay evac may continue till after next volley of storms roll thru !
Rain expected Thursday , Friday , Saturday , Monday , Tuesday not big storms but 5 in a row !!! They are lowering lake level by 50 feet now and filling in area by emergency spillway.