On Sunday, 188,000 people were evacuated from the Lake Oroville area after severe erosion the size of a football field was found in the main spillway of the Oroville Dam. Because of concerns of heavy rainfall on Wednesday, the Butte County Sheriff Department ordered an immediate evacuation of some 188,000 residents. Crews have been dropping stones into the hole via helicopters in order to plug the hole so that crews can eventually repair it. Heavy rain and snow have caused a record amount of water in the area, causing more strain on the weakening dam.
It is really scary to think that spillway could collapse, putting towns under a 30-foot wall of water. I hope that they are able to control the situation enough to keep the people safe. It must have been terrible to evacuate so quickly, not knowing if the next time you see your house, it was under a lake. There have been concerns over the dam's condition for over a decade, and it was irresponsible to ignore them until it is an emergency. In 1889, a man-made lake, Conemaugh Lake in Johnstown, spilled over its weak dam, killing 2,200 people. Concerns over the dam's strength and over the emergency spillway's maintenance had been ignored for five years. Like in the Conemaugh tragedy, if authorities had paid concern to the dam, an emergency might have been averted.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/13/us/california-oroville-dam-spillway-failure/index.html
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