Mass evacuation in California - Oroville Dam compromised

circadian

The emergency spillway of Oroville Dam has become damaged and over 180,000 people have been evacuated. Heavy rains predicted this week could make matters much worse.

This could possibly be a national disaster in America with a huge scale of destruction.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38952847

Ubbquittious

Bitta bailer twine, be grand.

Mint Sauce

If it moves, and it's not suppose to, gaffer tape. If it's not moving, and suppose to, WD40.

Harry Palmr

Ironic (possibly in an Alanis Morisette fashion) - California has been a drought state for four years, certainly three and now they are going through the wettest winter on record.

Great pix in that article.

the groutch

how long til someone blames Trump for it?

Outlaw Pete

Just get Superman to fly around the Earth a few dozen times.

Temptamperu

This wouldn't of happened if hillary was elected :pac:

Boom_Bap

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Just get Superman to fly around the Earth a few dozen times.

Does he not freeze it and carry it away?

Fleawuss

the groutch wrote: »

how long til someone blames Trump for it?

You mean how long before Trump blames Obama for it. Or Hillary. Or Muslims. Or the media. Or China. Or Mexicans. Don't worry, SCROTUS will make it all great again.

punisher5112

Trump did it. That OK....

frag420

the groutch wrote: »

how long til someone blames Trump for it?

Well if they can't keep water behind a big wall what hope have they got with determined Mexicans...

Fr_Dougal

First the girl from Sky Sports and now this dam. Seems like everything is being compromised this month.

sjb25

frag420 wrote: »

Well if they can't keep water behind a big wall what hope have they got with determined Mexicans...[/quot

May need some Mexicans to fix this dam

build that dam build that dam
USA USA USA

ScumLord

That article should have an app embedded on the page for dramatic effect.

http://inception.davepedu.com/

Harry Palmr

I bet a fair few Mexicans were building it back in the 60s.

The film Chinatown alludes to the Central Valley Project in it's main story.

Vicxas

So the damn itself is ok, but this slipway is buggered or something?

Your Face

I read that the dam itself is fine just the that the slipeway hasn't been properly tested and could potentially give way.

Kerrydude1981

Send in MacGyver

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Does he not freeze it and carry it away?

That was Superman III when he used it to put out a fire at an oil rig.

*takes nerd hat off*

circadian

Vicxas wrote: »

So the damn itself is ok, but this slipway is buggered or something?

Yeah the emergency slipway has become damaged but the concern is if it were to collapse there would be a 30ft wall of water heading downstream. From what I've seen on the local news, engineers are trying to drain 50ft of water as heavy rains are expected on Wednesday.

Water was flowing over the top of the spillway and eroded the hillside below so there are concerns about damage to the support mechanisms. The dam itself is still considered to be in good shape and operational but I can't see that being the case if the spillway collapses in any way.

sjb25

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Send in MacGyver

Oh stick of orbit and some tinfoil be sorted

IvyTheTerrible

I wonder could any of this be to do with the chronic lack of investment in infrastructure and repairs in California?

biko

Thanks for the heads up, OP, but I think we'll be ok here in Galway.

Kerrydude1981

sjb25 wrote: »

Oh stick of orbit and some tinfoil be sorted

Galadriel

They should get Scorpion on the case.

Skylinehead

Galadriel wrote: »

They should get Scorpion on the case.

Don't call me Mr Scorpion, it's Mr Scorpio, but don't call me that either. Call me Hank!

REBELSAFC

Your Face wrote: »

I read that the dam itself is fine just the that the slipeway hasn't been properly tested and could potentially give way.

Its hard to get the full story but what I think is happening is that because of this big hole they had to decrease outflow from the main dam.






With record rainfall, this led to very high water levels,the emergency slipway overflowing and putting huge pressure on the overflow system.
But its OK now cause the are filling the hole with big boulders dropped from helicopters before they get loads of rain again on Wednesday :rolleyes:

Manic Moran

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I wonder could any of this be to do with the chronic lack of investment in infrastructure and repairs in California?

[sarcasm]Only a little bit.[/sarcasm]

Of course, like everything else which doesn't get any attention or press in California until a disaster happens (It hasn't been too long since the last one, the Ghost Ship fire), good luck getting politicians to pay attention to anything not shiny or appealing to the mass of voters. We have a significant priorities problem: The day before the Oroville story broke here, a bill was introduced into the California legislature to provide funding for low income beach vacation housing. During the boom times, nobody was paying any attention to the water system, then we hit the drought. And we still didn't pay much attention to the water system. Instead it was "don't shower for so long, and look, we're building the US's first High Speed Rail link, from Fresno to Bakersfield." I don't know who lives in Bakersfield that wants to go to Fresno at 200mph, but they'll be able to do it in about ten years from now (Actually, I can't think of anyone who wants to get to Fresno at 200mph from anywhere, but that's a different matter). The majority of the State wants the thing cancelled and the money put to somewhere else. The federal funds necessary to make it remotely viable are at risk. But it continues on, so that the politicians can get their photo-ops showing how progressive they are, how in-front California is, and how wonderfully eco-friendly they are.

Our commuter public transport system is falling apart: BART satisfaction is rightly the lowest ever. Our roads are an embarassment, even the interstates are filled with potholes (I drove back from Reno last night, the difference in quality when you hit the State line is noticable). The roads alone are an estimated $5.7bn/year underfunded. Instead of fixing what we already have, it's "Let's build a new this, or let's fund this social project."

In a nutshell, we're asking our politicians, who are near super-majority Democrats with a huge support base on the coast, to go to their voters and say "There's a dam you've never heard of, in a place you probably can't find on a map, which is hours away from you, with more beavers than people, and we would like to fix it. It will cost this many million dollars, and you get no noticable benefit from it whatsoever." We can't even get them to fix the public transport system in San Francisco.

Oddly enough, California seems to divert just enough of its budget to 'life support', and everything else goes to other things which get the press. California's economy is touted as a shining example of what progressive policies can achieve, but it is a very fragile , pretty, structure built on a very shaky foundation.

wes

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I wonder could any of this be to do with the chronic lack of investment in infrastructure and repairs in California?

Isn't this the case for a lot of the US? They really need to spend money on infrastrucuture.

ScumLord

Manic Moran wrote: »

Of course, like everything else which doesn't get any attention or press in California until a disaster happens (It hasn't been too long since the last one, the Ghost Ship fire), good luck getting politicians to pay attention to anything not shiny or appealing to the mass of voters.

On the up shoot California has an excellent record of natural disaster films. Is it really worth making your public works safer if it means we'll have less disaster films based on true events?

Our commuter public transport system is falling apart: BART satisfaction is rightly the lowest ever. Our roads are an embarassment, even the interstates are filled with potholes (I drove back from Reno last night, the difference in quality when you hit the State line is noticable). The roads alone are an estimated $5.7bn/year underfunded. Instead of fixing what we already have, it's "Let's build a new this, or let's fund this social project."

I remember watching a video on guys resurfacing a road somewhere in America. They said they resurfaced the road every 4 years regardless of whether it needed it or not. So it's not like Americans don't know how to do it properly. It's probably just a matter of getting everybody to agree to do it. But spending public money seems to be frowned upon in the states, it seems like certain isolationists don't want to be considered hypocrites asking to fix public works when at the same time saying they don't want to the government involved in any part of their life.

super_furry

That'll be god punishing them for not voting for Trump.

Yourself isit

Manic Moran wrote: »

[sarcasm]Only a little bit.[/sarcasm]

Of course, like everything else which doesn't get any attention or press in California until a disaster happens (It hasn't been too long since the last one, the Ghost Ship fire), good luck getting politicians to pay attention to anything not shiny or appealing to the mass of voters. We have a significant priorities problem: The day before the Oroville story broke here, a bill was introduced into the California legislature to provide funding for low income beach vacation housing. During the boom times, nobody was paying any attention to the water system, then we hit the drought. And we still didn't pay much attention to the water system. Instead it was "don't shower for so long, and look, we're building the US's first High Speed Rail link, from Fresno to Bakersfield." I don't know who lives in Bakersfield that wants to go to Fresno at 200mph, but they'll be able to do it in about ten years from now (Actually, I can't think of anyone who wants to get to Fresno at 200mph from anywhere, but that's a different matter). The majority of the State wants the thing cancelled and the money put to somewhere else. The federal funds necessary to make it remotely viable are at risk. But it continues on, so that the politicians can get their photo-ops showing how progressive they are, how in-front California is, and how wonderfully eco-friendly they are.

Our commuter public transport system is falling apart: BART satisfaction is rightly the lowest ever. Our roads are an embarassment, even the interstates are filled with potholes (I drove back from Reno last night, the difference in quality when you hit the State line is noticable). The roads alone are an estimated $5.7bn/year underfunded. Instead of fixing what we already have, it's "Let's build a new this, or let's fund this social project."

In a nutshell, we're asking our politicians, who are near super-majority Democrats with a huge support base on the coast, to go to their voters and say "There's a dam you've never heard of, in a place you probably can't find on a map, which is hours away from you, with more beavers than people, and we would like to fix it. It will cost this many million dollars, and you get no noticable benefit from it whatsoever." We can't even get them to fix the public transport system in San Francisco.

Oddly enough, California seems to divert just enough of its budget to 'life support', and everything else goes to other things which get the press. California's economy is touted as a shining example of what progressive policies can achieve, but it is a very fragile , pretty, structure built on a very shaky foundation.

Part of the problem is the initiatives. These have severely reduced the capacity of the legislative bodies to increase taxes.

SnakePlissken

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

First the girl from Sky Sports and now this dam

I've no idea what this refers to but I dam well want to know now.

cup of tea

If it isn't Trumps fault then.......

Manic Moran

Yourself isit wrote: »

Part of the problem is the initiatives. These have severely reduced the capacity of the legislative bodies to increase taxes.

Good. We're already some of the highest taxes in the country.

Perhaps a little more efficiency is in order instead of the answer always being "Let's tax more."

Yourself isit

Manic Moran wrote: »

Good. We're already some of the highest taxes in the country.

Perhaps a little more efficiency is in order instead of the answer always being "Let's tax more."

I feel I may have found the root of your infrastructure deficit though.

circadian

I think the nation on the whole has serious issues with infrastructure. Some places are better than others but mostly it's an issue that will soon become very, very apparent if not addressed.

Anyone running for office generally avoids talk of infrastructure as neither party is willing to agree on where to source funding, especially if cuts have to be made somewhere like the military.

If a change in attitude doesn't come soon then scenarios like this will become more commonplace and it'll only be a matter of time before a huge disaster hits. The response and aftermath of Katrina shows that the government is incapable or unwilling to deal with large scale disasters.

This incident is merely a symptom of a larger problem.

darkpagandeath

If they seceded this would never have happened.

The_Valeyard

cup of tea wrote: »

If it isn't Trumps fault then.......

YOU'LL LIVE TO REGRET THIS

Manic Moran

circadian wrote: »

Vicxas wrote: »

So the damn itself is ok, but this slipway is buggered or something?

Yeah the emergency slipway has become damaged but the concern is if it were to collapse there would be a 30ft wall of water heading downstream. From what I've seen on the local news, engineers are trying to drain 50ft of water as heavy rains are expected on Wednesday.

Water was flowing over the top of the spillway and eroded the hillside below so there are concerns about damage to the support mechanisms. The dam itself is still considered to be in good shape and operational but I can't see that being the case if the spillway collapses in any way.

Apparently the further problem is that if that 30ft wall of water comes down, then it is likely to further erode the wall which forms the emergency spillway. In which case you get a cascade effect, and the whole reservoir empties. Even Sacramento would be flooded. As of last night, over 8,000 national Guardsmen have been called up, and are hanging out in armories awaiting further instruction. (Same reason why the residents have not been allowed home even after the water fell below the emergency spillway level). Costs to repair, hundreds of millions.

News had an interesting factoid: The dam is releasing 100,000 cfs in the attempt to make room for this weekend's expected rainfall. Niagara Falls averages about 85,000 cfs.

KingBrian2

None of this on the news only about the resignation of Flynn, the media are a total joke. Their all tabloids people.

KingBrian2

Heard on the news that Governor Brown is asking for Federal Assistance from President Trump. Rich California is looking for the White House and Congress to bail them out for the crappy work their infrastructure is in. I love California and all but with all the Californians ranting and raving about the results of the election and all the while their dam is about to burst.

Yamanoto

Every time I see the thread title...

Boom_Bap

I blame Daniel for this