Almost 200,000 evacuees in California by damage in dam Oroville.

[Wizard ;x]

 

Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from various areas of the northern California by the severe damage detected in a spillway of the dam of Oroville, although the threat of flooding has decreased in the last few hours.

This morning the authorities ordered the evacuation of at least 188,000 inhabitants of the area by the "potential" collapse of a section of the emergency spillway of Oroville, the highest dam, located about 250 kilometers northeast of San Francisco.

The heavy rains weakened the swamp overflow channel, 230 meters in height, and the rupture of the drainage structure of that "would result in an uncontrolled release of waters of the lake oroville".

California Governor Jerry Brown, also issued an emergency order state to assist local authorities in the work of emergency and evacuations.

In view of the risk, the authorities issued an evacuation order of the localities of Oroville, Palermo, Gridley, Thermalito, South Oroville, Oroville Dam, Oroville East and Wyandotte.

However, local officials warned in the last hours that the threat had been reduced because the water level of the dam had decreased and is no longer saturated the drainage channel concerned.

Also, the sheriff of the county of Butte, Kory L. De Leon, said that the Department of Water Resources of California had notified him that the erosion "was not progressing as quickly as they thought" and that could be avoided the crisis.

In spite of this, and although the dam has not been affected, the situation remains precarious in Oroville, according to the Los Angeles Times, which revealed that the cause of the alert was the discovery of a hole that, according to official sources, the authorities clogged with rocks while reducing the water level of the dam.

 

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