Dam of terror
‘Wall of water’ warning forces 200,000 to quit their homes
NeaRLY 200,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes in California after damage at america’s tallest dam threatened to send a 30ft wall of water downstream.
Frightened residents jammed roads and scrambled to get to shelters after officials said a torrent from the Oroville Dam could flood entire towns.
The 770ft high dam is intact – but the two spillways which let overflow water rush into the Feather River below the dam are both damaged.
as forecasters warned of more rain, emergency crews in helicopters were dropping giant sandbags filled with rocks on to the spillways to try to control the flow.
It is feared a wall of water would hurtle down the Feather River, flooding the towns on its banks.
The National Guard has ordered its 23,000 soldiers and airmen to be ready for deployment in its largest mobilisation
‘Everything else starts to roll off the hill’
since the 1992 riots following the Rodney King police beating case verdict.
Lake Oroville, which is 75 miles north of Sacramento, is one of California’s largest man-made lakes and, after five years of drought, has filled to overflowing.
erosion created a 200-foot-long, 30foot- deep hole in the main spillway, a large concrete chute off to the side, so officials stopped using it.
as more water built up in the lake, it began to pour over the emergency spillway to the side, which is a hillside with no concrete chute. Officials then saw a gash forming below the lip of the emergency spillway meaning that it could burst at any minute.
Kevin Lawson, California Fire incident commander, said this is dangerous because ‘when you start to erode the ground, the dirt and everything else starts to roll off the hill’.
He said: ‘If that’s not mitigated properly, essentially what we’re looking at, is approximately a 30-foot wall of water’.
Some 188,000 people in the cities of Oroville, Gridley, Live Oak, Marysville, Wheatland, Yuba City, Plumas Lake and Olivehurst were ordered to leave.
The National Weather Service put out an evacuation notice and said: ‘This is not a drill. Repeat this is not a drill’.
Last night the water had receded but forecasters said there could be up to four inches of rain tomorrow.