California Drought

[ForestGrump]

You keep talking about doomsayers, people were concerned about weir failing and the lake emptying by cutting a new channel right at the weir. If you look at the dam as a system, it failed, and needs hundreds of millions in repairs. The scale of damage is staggering. Anyone who thinks we didn't dodge a huge bullet is not being honest.

This is scary, we agree! Beside the failed spillway there is a huge and very deep gorge. The geology that the dam and spillways were on failed and therefore the dam has failed, not literally but technically. The dam may not be anchored as well as they thought it was, basically it's an earthen dam on earth, not rock. I would give that geologist a D-. Nothing new, all the recent big earthquakes in California have occurred in thrust faults, relatively unknowns in the EQ geologist world but very well known in the Petroleum geologists world - Coalinga, Northridge,Landers, Big Bear .... Santa Monica Blvd. is built on a thrust fault.

How much to stabilize, bet its close to $800 million. Maybe not even feasible. Bet you see new guidelines in the future about a new maximum capacity level, somewhere about 50 to 75' down from full.

 

[coldsteelva]

Work begins to clear the Feather River of debris downstream from the power plant so it can resume operation.

The sheer magnitude of the debris now blocking the Feather River is staggering.
That dozer looks like a MicroMachine.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yep, water has a lot of power.

 

[check]

That photo is unbelievable. Looks like a nuclear bomb crater! I had no idea it was that bad.

 

[bcp]

This one caught my attention. Do you see the helicopter inspecting the break?

Oroville Dam’s power plant may be operational by Thursday | The Sacramento Bee

Bruce

 

[aczlan]

This one caught my attention. Do you see the helicopter inspecting the break?
View attachment 500345
Oroville Dam’s power plant may be operational by Thursday | The Sacramento Bee
Bruce

Is that a full sized chopper, or a drone? IIRC, the whole spillway is ~178 feet wide, so either that is a drone, or the perspective is misleading.

Aaron Z

 

[bcp]

Looks full-sized to me. You can see it moving in from the right starting at about 00:05 seconds in the video linked under the photo. Big rotor on top.

Bruce

 

[k0ua]

I believe that heli is a big one with people inside.

 

[MossRoad]

Is that a full sized chopper, or a drone? IIRC, the whole spillway is ~178 feet wide, so either that is a drone, or the perspective is misleading.

Aaron Z

A helicopter like that is maybe 5' wide, and its closer to the camera, making it look larger than it is.

 

[bcp]

Maybe same helicopter. Scroll down.

Dramatic new images show scale of damage to Oroville Dam spillway - SFGate

And many more of it here:

Oroville Dam operators stop flow down spillway, see extensive damage

Bruce