Crews rush to repair California dam
Oroville, Calif. Crews working around the clock atop the crippled Oroville Dam have made progress repairing the damaged spillway, reducing the lake level by at least eight feet overnight at a Northern California reservoir that has been central to the life of the towns around it for a half century.
Workers hoisted giant white bags filled with rocks, and at least two helicopters flew in rocks Tuesday then released them into the eroded area of the spillway. Dump trucks full of boulders also were dumping cargo on the damaged spillway.
Workers are rushing to repair the barrier at the nation’s tallest dam after authorities ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people for everyone living below the lake amid concerns the spillway could fail and send water roaring downstream. Evacuations remain in place.
State Department of Water Resources officials hope to reduce the lake level to 860 feet by Thursday when storms will bring more rain, spokesman Chris Orrock said. The level was 884 feet on Tuesday morning.
The lake that for five decades has brought residents holiday fireworks and salmon festivals now could bring disaster.
“Never in our lives did we think anything like this would have happened,” said Brannan Ramirez, who has lived in Oroville, a town of about 16,000 people, for about five years.
The Gold Rush town in the Sierra Nevada foothills some 70 miles northeast of Sacramento is nestled near the foot of the dam, which was completed in 1968 and at 770 feet is the nation’s tallest. Houses and churches are perched on treelined streets near the Feather River. Old, ornate Victorian homes sit alongside smaller bungalows.
“Everybody knows to go there for the Fourth of July,” evacuee Crystal Roberts-Lynch said of the lake. “Then there’s festivals wrapped around the salmon run.”
The mother of three, who has lived in Oroville for 10 years, was staying at a Red Cross evacuation centre in Chico
Cities and towns farther down the Feather River also are in danger.