Shock over the emergency evacuation downriver from the Oroville Dam has given way to serious questions about how California is coping with its aging infrastructure — which the American Society of Civil Engineers says would cost the state a staggering $65 billion per year to fix and maintain after years of neglect.
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Crews working around the clock atop a crippled California dam reported progress Tuesday in repairing the damaged spillway and reducing the water level by at least 8 feet at the reservoir that has been central to this farming region for a half-century.
Helicopters carried giant sandbags and cement blocks from a staging area on the south side of the Oroville Dam toward the stricken spillway on the north side. Crews operating heavy equipment loaded rocks and boulders into dump trucks, which carried them over the dam and dumped them on damaged portions.
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While our smartphones all show rain dominating the next 10 days, the troubled Oroville Dam’s two spillways may not be tested as heavily as previously feared, according to data reviewed by this newspaper and a meteorologist.
The upcoming weather is also predicted to be much colder, with snow levels dropping as low as 3,500 feet. Snow in cold weather will stick and create less run-off in the short term, Null said. The earlier rain came with higher snow elevations, meaning warmer weather and more run-off.
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