PORTLAND, Ore. – Sixteen disaster responders from Oregon and Southwest Washington are headed to California to help the nearly 190,000 people who evacuated their homes near the Oroville Dam.

The dam was at risk of breaching Sunday night, prompting the evacuation order.

Responders from Portland, Dallas, Medford, Silverton, Bend, Wood Village, Salem and Newberg, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, will staff shelters set up for evacuated residents and deliver food and other supplies, according to a news release from the American Red Cross.

Nearly 4,000 evacuees were in Red Cross and community shelters as of Monday morning, the Red Cross said. The organization is preparing to shelter and feed thousands more people in the upcoming days.

Mike Williams, a Red Cross volunteer from Salem, is driving one of three Emergency Response Vehicles to help with the Oroville Dam response.

 

 "I saw the news coverage last night and started packing my travel bag," Williams said. "I knew I needed to help and when I received the call this morning asking if I could go, I was ready. The folks who have been evacuated need us."

 

 The Oroville Dam is the nation’s highest dam. The evacuation order came after damage was discovered Sunday night.

The dam currently remains intact, but the emergency spillway is eroding.

The governor of California has declared a state of emergency.

There is no estimation on when people will be able to return to their homes, but the Red Cross said it was preparing to help evacuees for as long as needed.</s>Damage to a spillway on California's Oroville Dam -- which prompted an urgent call for residents downstream to evacuate to higher ground -- may not be as bad as previously thought, the Butte County sheriff said Sunday. "I would rather be safe than sorry.

Start the conversation, or Read more at WICU12 Erie.</s>At least 188,000 people living downstream of California's Oroville Dam were ordered to evacuate late Sunday as officials said an emergency spillway was dangerously eroding and a failure could cause uncontrolled floodwaters to pour out of the lake.

Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall.</s>The area around a huge dam at California's second-largest reservoir is in a state of emergency, with some 180,000 residents ordered to evacuate the area Sunday out of fears that part of Oroville Dam could fail. A glimmer of hope arrived late Sunday night, when officials said water had finally stopped pouring over the dam's emergency spillway.

The secondary spillway was in use because the main spillway had developed a huge hole, stressed by the need to release water accumulated from California's wet winter — and brought to a new crisis point by last week's heavy rains.

"So the lake rose 50 feet in just a few days," Dan Brekke of member station KQED tells Morning Edition, "and got up to this emergency spillway which had never been used since the dam went into service in 1968. And on Saturday morning, it began pouring over there."

Residents of the area some 70 miles north of Sacramento were placed under evacuation orders around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, after the reservoir rose to a record level — more than a foot above what's considered "full" — and its main spillway struggled to provide relief and its auxiliary spillway was seen at risk of failing. At the time, officials said that dangerous flooding could be just hours away.

Even as the evacuation orders were issued, officials had reason to hope that Lake Oroville would soon begin to recede, due to a drop in the amount of runoff water entering the lake and a dry weather forecast. But the reservoir's infrastructure was struggling to cope.

"The lake is considered full at 901 feet [above sea level], and it's at that level that it began pouring over an emergency spillway early Saturday," KQED reports.

The lake kept rising, surpassing its "full" level by more than a foot. Last night, Lake Oroville's water level finally dropped below 900 feet around midnight, in a trend that has continued into Monday morning.

As for the residents and evacuees, Brekke says he has seen many confused, scared people — one woman's son, he says, compared the evacuation to a zombie apocalypse. And another woman said she's still worrying over the family members who weren't able to leave.

"My daughter-in-law is still there with her sister, who is bedridden, but we've got her in a wheelchair. They were supposed to be sending an ambulance or someone to help transport her out. And nobody has shown up for her yet. She called 911, and 911 said they weren't sending anybody else out."



Overnight, evacuation centers and shelters were still being outfitted with beds and blankets. Gov. Jerry Brown issued an emergency order last night to help with the process, which saw shelters erected at fairgrounds to handle the thousands of people leaving Oroville and other downstream areas.

While the waters are receding and dry weather is expected for Monday and Tuesday, the region in Northern California could get another round of rain later this week, when forecasts are calling for several days of rain.

The Oroville Dam incident has sparked questions about how to repair the dam's spillways — and whether other structures in California and beyond are similarly vulnerable. After the main spillway developed a 200-foot hole, the auxiliary spillway also began to erode, sparking Sunday's evacuation.

Flood control expert Jeffrey Mount, of the Public Policy Institute of California and the University of California Davis, says the auxiliary spillway at Oroville had never been tested — always a challenge with emergency equipment — and that it will be very expensive to repair.

"The weaknesses were revealed immediately in the design, and it threatened to collapse," Mount tells Morning Edition.

"I can tell you that this event will cause us to do some soul-searching about the amount of money we're spending on infrastructure — maintenance, particularly — here in California," Mount says.</s>OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — At least 130,000 people asked to evacuate over concerns California’s Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway could fail.</s>Gurudwaras in Sacramento, California, are offering food and shelter to all the residents evacuated from the Yuba City, which has an estimated population of 13 per cent Punjabi-Americans and houses several gurudwaras, following fears of the Oroville Dam collapsing. “Sikh temples in Sacramento offering Food & Shelter. They are open for ALL people evacuated from Yuba City #OrovilleDam #OrovilleSpillway,” tweeted social activist, Harjinder S Kukreja. Evacuation was ordered on Monday for parts of Yuba County including Hallwood, Marysville, Olivehurst, Linda and Plumas Lake.

Yuba County Office of Emergency Services posted an evacuation order on Facebook saying, “Yes, an evacuation has been ordered. All Yuba County on the valley floor. The auxiliary spillway is close to failing. Please travel safely. Contact family and friends. Help the elderly. Take only routes to the east, south, or west. DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE!!!!!”

The California Department of Water Resources also issued an emergency evacuation order on Facebook that reads, “Officials are anticipating a failure of the Auxiliary Spillway at Oroville Dam within the next 60 minutes. Residents of Oroville should evacuate in a northward direction, toward Chico. Other cities should follow the orders of their local law enforcement.”

According to Sacramento based Fox 40 news, officials said a hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. The operation of the auxiliary spillway has led to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the auxiliary spillway and result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville.

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for a possible dam failure. The areas that can be affected are Oroville, Palermo, Gridley, Thermalito, South Oroville, Oroville Dam, Oroville East and Wyandotte.</s>(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 guards against the overflow of the dam when water levels are high, was eroding Sunday.

The damage prompted a mandatory evacuation for cities and counties near Lake Oroville. In the worst case scenario, one official said, an uncontrolled release from the dam could send a 30-foot wall of water downstream.

"I'm not going to lift the evacuation order until I have a better idea of what that means and what risk that poses," Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said in a news conference late Sunday night.

Officials are waiting until daylight Monday to better assess the situation and decide when it's safe for residents to return, Honea said.

California Gov. Jerry Brown issued a state emergency order to help local authorities with the situation and evacuations.

What led up to the emergency

Heavy rainfall in Northern California this winter 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 -- which are channels to leak water out of the lake to prevent overflow. And right now, both have problems.

6:08pm: #OrovilleDam itself is not compromised at current time. Failure would be on auxiliary spillway. See graphic for details. pic.twitter.com/LSxCwsthxC — NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) February 13, 2017

Last week, the primary spillway was damaged by erosion, according to the California Department of Water Resources. Images of the structure showed a massive hole in the lower part of the channel.

spillway at the #orovilledam - erosion was 1st reported 3 days ago, since then it has grown. pic.twitter.com/MNep5CQ9Ni — CANGJOCOPS (@CANGJ3OPS) February 9, 2017

That hole can't be fixed at the moment. It's 250 feet long, 170 feet wide and about 40 to 50 feet deep, said Bill Croyle, acting director of the Department of Water Resources.

"You don't throw a little bit of rock in it," he said.

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. (6 p.m. ET) Sunday, authorities learned that the dam's emergency spillway was also 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 ordering 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.

An emergency evacuation of the City of Marysville and Yuba County has been issued. — MarysvillePD (@MarysvillePD) February 13, 2017

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 Resources withdrew more water from the other spillway.

The main 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 made 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, Croyle said.

Authorities will have to act fast -- more rain is in the forecast for Wednesday.</s>Roughly 188,000 people living downstream from Northern California’s Lake Oroville were ordered to immediately evacuate on Sunday afternoon after an emergency spillway releasing millions of gallons of water from the lake threatened to fail due to erosion. By late on Sunday night the situation had improved, but the evacuation order has yet to be lifted.

The lake, which is about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, is held back by the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam, the tallest in the country. Record storms took Lake Oroville from 80 percent full to overflowing in less than a week, as the L.A. Times explains. While the dam itself is structurally sound, last week a hole caused by erosion was discovered on the main spillway. It spread across the concrete-lined channel, and on Saturday the emergency spillway was used for the first time since the dam was completed in 1968.

Initially the system appeared to be working, but on Sunday engineers spotted a hole in the emergency spillway. At 4:20 p.m local time, an evacuation order was issued for everyone living downstream of Lake Oroville’s dam.

“They have what they expect to be an imminent failure of the axillary spillway,” said Mike Smith, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “What they’re expecting is as much as 30 vertical feet of the top of the spillway could fail and could fail within one to two hours. We don’t know how much water that means, but we do know that’s potentially 30 feet of depth of Lake Oroville.”

Residents of Butte, Sutter and Yuba rushed out of the area, creating gridlock for miles. An evacuation shelter was set up in Chico, which is north of the lake, at the Silver Dollar fairgrounds. Belen Castaneda, 23, told the Times she was headed there with her family and an elderly neighbor who doesn’t speak English. “We just grabbed everything we could,” she said. “Everyone was freaking out.”

Late on Sunday night the threat decreased when water stopped flowing into the emergency spillway. Officials said they plan to use bags of rocks to plug the hole in the emergency spillway, but the situation is still precarious. Storms are forecast for later this week, and officials said they need to keep draining water from the lake for as long as possible.

California Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency order on Sunday night. “I’ve been in close contact with emergency personnel managing the situation in Oroville throughout the weekend and it’s clear the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing,” Brown said in a statement. “The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to deal with this very serious situation.”

Eight California National Guard helicopters will assist with the attempt to reconstruct the emergency spillway. All 23,000 soldiers in the California National Guard have been notified that they should be ready to deploy if needed. According to the AP, the entire California National Guard hasn’t been put on alert since the 1992 L.A. riots.</s>The area around a huge dam at California's second-largest reservoir is in a state of emergency, with some 180,000 residents of the area ordered to evacuate Sunday out of fears that part of Oroville Dam could fail. A glimmer of hope arrived late Sunday night, when officials said water had finally stopped pouring over the dam's emergency spillway.

The secondary spillway was in use because the main spillway had developed a huge hole, stressed by the need to release water accumulated from California's wet winter — and brought to a new crisis point by last week's heavy rains.

"So the lake rose 50 feet in just a few days," Dan Brekke of member station KQED tells Morning Edition, "and got up to this emergency spillway which had never been used since the dam went into service in 1968. And on Saturday morning, it began pouring over there."

Residents of the area some 70 miles north of Sacramento were placed under evacuation orders at around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, after the reservoir rose to a record level — more than a foot above what's considered "full" — and its main spillway struggled to provide relief and its auxiliary spillway was seen at risk of failing. At the time, officials said that dangerous flooding could be just hours away.

Even as the evacuation orders were issued, officials had reason to hope that Lake Oroville would soon begin to recede, due to a drop in the amount of runoff water entering the lake and a dry weather forecast. But the reservoir's infrastructure was struggling to cope.

"The lake is considered full at 901 feet [above sea level], and it's at that level that it began pouring over an emergency spillway early Saturday," KQED reports.

The lake kept rising, surpassing its "full" level by more than a foot. Last night, Lake Oroville's water level finally dropped below 900 feet around midnight, in a trend that has continued into Monday morning.

As for the residents and evacuees, Brekke says he has seen many confused, scared people — one woman's son, he says, compared the evacuation to a zombie apocalypse. And another woman said she's still worrying over the family members who weren't able to leave.

"My daughter-in-law is still there with her sister, who is bedridden, but we've got her in a wheelchair. They were supposed to be sending an ambulance or someone to help transport her out. And nobody has shown up for her yet. She called 911, and 911 said they weren't sending anybody else out."



Overnight, evacuation centers and shelters were still in the process of being outfitted with beds and blankets. Gov. Jerry Brown issued an emergency order last night to help with the process, which saw shelters erected at fairgrounds to handle the thousands of people leaving Oroville and other downstream areas.

While the waters are receding and dry weather is expected for Monday and Tuesday, the region in Northern California could get another round of rain later this week, when forecasts are calling for several days of rain.

The Oroville Dam incident has sparked questions about how to repair the dam's spillways — and whether other structures in California and beyond are similarly vulnerable. After the main spillway developed a 200-foot hole, the auxiliary spillway also began to erode, sparking Sunday's evacuation.

Flood control expert Jeffrey Mount, of the Public Policy Institute of California and the University of California Davis, says the auxiliary spillway at Oroville had never been tested — always a challenge with emergency equipment — and that it will be very expensive to repair.

"The weaknesses were revealed immediately in the design, and it threatened to collapse," Mount tells Morning Edition.

"I can tell you that this event will cause us to do some soul-searching about the amount of money we're spending on infrastructure — maintenance particularly — here in California," Mount says.</s>At least 188,000 people living downstream of California's Oroville Dam were ordered to evacuate late Sunday as officials said an emergency spillway was dangerously eroding and a failure could cause uncontrolled floodwaters to pour out of the lake.

Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall.
Thousands of people are urged to evacuate in and around the vicinity of Yuba City due to the impending failure of an emergency spillway at Oroville Dam in Northern California. 188,000 people were reported to be evacuated.