California crews rush to fix dam before new storms hit
OROVILLE: Stormwaters receded on Monday behind the nation’s tallest dam, in Northern California, as engineers raced to drain the rain-swollen reservoir and shore up a crumbling overflow channel before new storms sweep the region later this week.
Authorities said they had averted the immediate danger of a catastrophic failure — one capable of unleashing a wall of water three stories tall on towns below.
But evacuation orders for some 188,000 residents remained in effect indefinitely, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a midday news conference. The risk to those living in the Feather River valley below the Lake Oroville Dam, 105 km north of Sacramento, was still being reviewed, he said.
“We need to have time to make sure that before we allow people back into those areas it is safe to do so,” Honea said.
Residents below the dam were abruptly ordered from their homes on Sunday when an emergency spillway that acts as an automatic overflow channel appeared on the brink of collapse from severe erosion during what is on track to be Northern California’s wettest winter on record after years of drought. Environmen- tal groups had warned for more than a decade that the dam’s spillway was not safe.
“Infrastructure is profoundly important, and in our complex society, whether it’s electricity or gas or water or roads or bridges, there’s a lot to be done,” California Governor Jerry Brown told reporters during a news conference on Monday evening.
Brown said he was pleased by US President Donald Trump’s promise to pursue a $1-trillion infrastructure programme, adding, “I’ll strive to make sure California gets 12 per cent” referring to the state’s share of the US population.