Lake Oroville will partially reopen on Thursday, nearly two weeks after more than 180,000 Northern California residents evacuated their homes and the lake area closed due to fears that the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam could fail. California State Parks closed the state recreation area, with the exception of the visitor center and north and south forebays, on Feb. 13 to avoid any interference as crews worked to strengthen the dam’s emergency spillway and remove debris from below the main spillway. Campgrounds were also closed to accommodate other agencies involved in the spillway work.

Now that we can take a breath and look back over the past week and a half, clearly there are moments that never will be forgotten. We know that the Oroville Dam spillway incident will be among the biggest news events of 2017, and we’ve only started the recognition and acknowledgements for jobs well done by emergency personnel and responders. Plenty of folks from the sheriff on down to county officials and staff, city personnel, and residents themselves have a lot to be proud of what’s happened since the Feb. 12 evacuations started.

 

Larry Bowen ducked beneath the large white portico to escape the freshly falling rain, the first droplets of a thick storm that would pour down over Northern California later that night. He and his wife, Robin, came to this hillside outpost to look out at the Oroville Dam, like hundreds of others in recent days who were suddenly all too aware of infrastructure, spillways and reservoir levels.