BARRAGEM DE OROVILLE (EUA - CALIFÓRNIA)
EVACUATIONS ORDERED OVER CONCERNS AT CALIFORNIA DAM SYSTEM
(CNN) - At least 188,000 people have evacuated from several Northern California counties after damage to a spillway at the Oroville Dam.
The dam, which is the nation's tallest, remains intact. But the emergency spillway, which helps to ensure that the water does not rush over the top of the dam when the levels are high, was eroding Sunday.
The damage prompted a mandatory evacuation for cities and counties near Lake Oroville amid fears it could endanger communities living downstream.
Those orders remain in effect and Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said he did not know when they would be lifted.
"I'm not going to lift the evacuation order until I have better idea of what that means and what risk that poses," he said in a press conference late Sunday night.
What led up to the Sunday emergency
This winter, heavy rainfall in Northern California has filled Lake Oroville to the verge of overflow. The lake also gets water from the northern Sierra Nevada mountain range which is experiencing one of its wettest seasons. This has triggered concerns over whether the water could overflow the dam and flood nearby communities.
The Oroville Dam provides flood control for the region and is located about 75 miles north of Sacramento.
The dam has two spillways -- the primary and the emergency spillway -- to prevent that from happening. These are channels to leak water out of the lake. And right now, both have major problems.
Last week, the primary spillway was "damaged by erosion," according to the California Department of Water Resources as photos showed a massive hole on the lower part of the structure.
Of the two, the emergency spillway is a last resort. At Oroville Dam, the emergency spillway is only used if water levels reach 901 feet in elevation. It hasn't needed to be used in its 48-year history -- until this weekend.
Why evacuation order was made
A light flow of water began washing into the emergency spillway Saturday and the volume of water began to increase. Around 3 p.m. local time on Sunday, authorities learned that the dam's emergency spillway was eroding, Honea said.
The erosion of the emergency spillway is dangerous because "when you start to erode the ground, the dirt and everything else starts to roll off the hill," said Kevin Lawson, California Fire incident commander.
"It starts to undermine itself. If that is not addressed, if that's not mitigated properly, essentially what we're looking at, is approximately a 30-foot wall of water," he said.
Evacuation orders on Sunday sternly warned residents that the erosion could result in "large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville."
Honea's office used the most urgent of language -- "This is NOT a drill" -- in imploring residents to evacuate ahead of an impending disaster. Residents were told that the emergency "spillway is close to failing." The evacuation order included "all Yuba County on the valley floor" and the city of Marysville, authorities said.
About 35,000 people from Butte County, 65,000 from Yuba County, 76,000 from Yuba City and 12,000 from Marysville City evacuated, according to California Fire.
Stores closed. Shelters opened. Local gas stations were swarmed with cars as residents tried to leave town. Evacuees waited in traffic trying to get out of low-lying areas.
Sean Dennis, who lives 30 miles south of Oroville, spoke to CNN from his car after spending 4.5 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
"It was pretty scary, just because of how fast everything was developing," he said. "Me and my wife managed to throw as much of stuff as we could into garbage bags, whatever we could find. We got both of our cars loaded down pretty well. We're not taking any chances."
Police said that despite rumors, there were no reports of looting.
Watching the damage
After issuing the evacuation orders, authorities noted significant decreases in the water coming over the emergency spillway.
The flow of water on the emergency spillway eventually stopped Sunday night as the Department of Water Resource withdrew more water from the other spillway.
The primary spillway is releasing water at 100,000 cubic feet per second in an effort to reduce the amount of water traveling down the emergency spillway, authorities said. Normal flows down the main spillway are about 55,000 cubic feet per second.
"The goal is to get the lake to drop 50 feet. If we can continue to do that, that brings a little bit of calm to what we're trying to accomplish here," said Cal Fire's Lawson.
So far, there have been no repairs on the emergency spillway, because teams have been unable to reach the damaged area.
Teams will take a look and assess the situation Monday morning, Bill Croyle, the acting Director of Department of Water Resources said.
Authorities will have to act fast as more rain is in the forecast for Wednesday.
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