Who's affected by the possible Oroville dam collapse?

[Grumpyguy]

Sounds like it has collapsed, or will collapse, though the article isn't wholly clear to me.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/califor...32499.html

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Lake-...926950.php

[Ombligo]

It is the spillway that could collapse allowing 30 feet of water to flow through, not the Oroville Dam itself (which holds back 770 feet of water)

The spillway collapse is bad and could devastate the towns just downstream. An actual collapse of the Dam would be beyond horrendous.

[DP]

Just heard there are evacuation orders being enacted.

[DP]

Butte County. Oroville, Palermo, South Oroville.

[hal]

Live news video: http://www.kcra.com/nowcast

[vision63]

New storms start Thursday.

I have Friends in Marysville and Oroville. Everybody is supposed to go north to Chico.

[pdq]

Erin English of Linda said she got a robo-call a few minutes ago telling her to evacuate and get to higher ground.

She immediately called 911 and dispatchers there at first told her to go to Chico, then changed their mind saying that she might not make it there before water came through.

Instead they told her to go to the Colusa Casino.

on the other hand, the subsequent update:

State Department of Water Resources told Butte County Sheriff Kony Honea shortly after 6 p.m. that “the erosion that caused all this concern was not advancing as rapidly as they thought.”

...He said two inches of water is still coming over the dam, which “is significantly down” from earlier flows.

“That has helped reduce the level of the lake,” he said. “It’s hopefully going to reduce the pressure on that alternative, emergency spillway and stabilize the situation so we can find a repair and hopefully prevent it from complete failure.”

[jdc]

Why did she call 911?

Update is a good thing, perhaps it wont break after all -- and if it went the other way and did lots of dead people -- better safe than sorry...

[Paul F.]

The spillway collapsing would be bad...

The dam failing would be the fucking apocalypse... it's a 770 foot dam, and the city of Sacramento is between the dam and the sea.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

jdc, freeradical, and Ken Sp. are the users listed on the map downstream from Lake Oroville.

It's the second largest reservoir in the state. Oroville and Yuba City/Marysville would be mowed down. Highway 5, 80, and 99 would likely be under water in multiple places. Sacramento could be in very bad shape depending on how much it rains in the next two days since they already have flooding in some outlying areas.

Lake Oroville is 3.6 million acre feet, that's a square area about 75 miles on a side, one foot deep. Sacramento is 68 miles from Oroville. I don't know if all the water would flow out.