You are now in California and the U.S. category.

California Towns Flee As Oroville Dam Threatens To Release ‘Wall Of Water’

/in /by /CNNby Eliott C. McLaughlin and Paul Vercammen

Oroville, California (CNN)A massive crevasse that formed in a spillway at Northern California’s Oroville Dam has spurred mass evacuations, with nearby residents fleeing the worst-case specter of a three-story wall of water rushing downstream. In all, about 188,000 people, mostly in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties, evacuated from the area, some being given only minutes to gather their things. “Everyone was running around; it was pure chaos,” Oroville resident Maggie Cabral told CNN affiliate KFSN on Sunday.”

Full Story

California Today: Flood Risk Causes 100,000 to Evacuate. Here’s What We Know.

/in /by /The New York Timesby Mike McPhate

Thousands of people fled areas downriver from Lake Oroville on Sunday after a secondary spillway at the swollen reservoir was compromised, raising fears of a collapse that might unleash disastrous flooding. By late Sunday, after whole towns had emptied out, officials said the immediate danger appeared to have passed. Evacuation orders, however, remained in place until they could be sure. “There are still a lot of unknowns,” Sheriff Kory L. Honea of Butte County said at a news conference.

Full Story

OPINION: See The dangerous Flooding At Oroville Dam For Yourself

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Abby Hamblin

The Oroville reservoir spill forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate and Gov. Jerry Brown to issue a state of emergency, and officials are hurrying to make repairs before the next storms. Water overwhelming a failing retaining wall at the massive dam has raised questions and calls for action about California infrastructure. News reports are everywhere. By now, you’ve heard about it, but have you seen it? The video and photographs are wild. It’s a complicated scenario that can best be described in images. So here’s a look at the situation from those watching it unfold in person.

Full Story

Inspections Underway At San Diego Dams After Oroville Scare

/in /by /Times of San Diegoby Hoa Quach Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A comprehensive condition assessment of nine dams owned by the city of San Diego has been underway for the past year, the Public Utilities Department said Monday. Asked about the condition of San Diego dams after Sunday’s mass evacuation in Oroville in Northern California, department officials told City News Service that they hired independent experts in dam design, construction and safety to perform detailed inspections of the dams in February of last year.

Full Story

As California Waits On Trump, FEMA Gets Going Around Oroville Dam

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Michael Bodley

As California waited Monday night to see if President Donald Trump would grant Gov. Jerry Brown’s request for emergency funding for 10,000 evacuees who lived in the shadow of the Oroville Dam, FEMA began preparing for the worse. The federal disaster-management agency’s Region 9, which oversees California and other Western states, has mobilized a 24-hour task force to coordinate its response with state and local agencies, said Mary Simms, a spokeswoman.

Full Story

San Joaquin Valley Continues To Sink Because Of Groundwater Pumping, NASA Says

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

California’s San Joaquin Valley continues to sink at an alarming rate because of groundwater pumping and irrigation, according to a new study by NASA. Ground levels in some areas have dropped 1 to 2 feet in the last two years, creating deeper and wider “bowls” that continue to threaten the vital network of channels that transport water across Southern California, researchers say. The findings underscore the fact that even as record rain and snow have brought much of California out of severe drought, some parts of the state will probably struggle with water problems for years to come.

 

Full Story

Endangered, Threatened Species Could Benefit From Congressional Redlands Bill

/in /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)by Suzanne Hurt

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a bill reintroduced in the U.S. Senate Monday, Feb. 13, would show some love to local endangered species, restoring mining-degraded habitat in the Upper Santa Ana River Wash in Redlands. The bill proposes a land swap that would move mining operations to protect plants and animals where the wash joins Mill Creek. Those include three endangered species – the San Bernardino kangaroo rat, slender-horned spineflower and Santa Ana woolly-star; the threatened California gnatcatcher; and the cactus wren.

Full Story

California’s Oroville Dam Disaster Is A Wake-Up Call For America

/in /by /CNBC (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.)by Jake Novak

No, humans cannot make it rain, stop the rain, or produce real rainbows in the sky. But we can do things that protect ourselves from the rain and get it to work for our agriculture and overall economy. And it’s clearer than ever that Californians have simply failed to do those things as the Oroville Dam crisis continues to force massive evacuations and raises fears of a potential disaster.

Full Story

Signs Of Hope At Oroville Dam, After Overflow Sparked Large Evacuation Sunday

/in /by /NPRby Bill Chappell

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.

 

Full Story

VIDEO: Precarious Oroville Dam Highlights Challenges Of California Water Management

/in /by /KPBS

At Northern California’s Lake Oroville, water levels receded Monday, stopping the overflow of water from the dam’s emergency spillway. This reduced the risk of immediate uncontrolled flooding — but longer-term concerns remain. William Brangham speaks with Jeffrey Mount of the Public Policy Institute of California about the massive evacuation that took place and the outlook for the dam’s future.

Full Story