The highest dam in the united states is threatened. Dam Breaking in California: Oroville Accident

The California Department of Water Resources tweeted that the dam could break within an hour. The main spillway has already been destroyed. The spare spillway may also not be able to withstand the pressure of the water, and it counts for hours.

Residents should avoid traveling north towards Oroville, authorities said.

According to official figures, almost 190 thousand people were evacuated. California authorities have also begun taking action to lower the water levels in Lake Oroville. In order to fill the hole in the auxiliary spillway and prevent further destruction, rescue services intend to throw stones from helicopters.

The Butte County Sheriff also announced the evacuation. He asked people to leave the area near the lake, as well as the area where water could rush in the event of a dam break.

Due to the evacuation, the timing of which has not yet been reported, traffic jams for many hours have formed on the Californian roads. Emergency services are addressing these issues, noting that in the worst-case scenario, people's lives will be in real danger. At the same time, they noted that the situation is developing very rapidly.

Fire and Rescue Chief Kim Zagaris said at least 250 law enforcement officers from across California are on site or heading to the dam area to prevent unrest and ensure the safety of evacuees.

Despite reports of looting in Oroville, the city's police have denied this information. A spokesman for city law enforcement claims that the absence of looting is confirmed by the leadership of the local police department.

The danger of a dam rupture has arisen due to the powerful streams of water caused by heavy rains. On Saturday, February 11, the overflow of water began through the spare spillway, and then through the main one. The accidental discharge of water has caused severe soil erosion, which can lead to the failure of the dam. Although experts do not expect the complete destruction of the structure, the consequences can lead to an uncontrolled release of a significant amount of flood waters. The volume of water in the lake is estimated at more than 4.3 billion cubic meters.

Last Friday, California Gov. Jerry Brown asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare a possible massive disaster due to floods and landslides.

Construction of the Oroville Dam, which began in 1962, was completed in 1968. The waterworks, 230 meters high, is the largest in the United States. Downstream of the dam is the city of the same name with a population of more than 16 thousand people.

Russian experts note that a dam break could lead to casualties.

In northern California, an emergency regime was introduced and an order was issued to evacuate 190 thousand people due to the threat of a dam break near the city of Oroville, one of the largest dams in the United States. Now the water level in the Oroville Reservoir has risen to a critical level due to heavy rains, and the dam's gutters are damaged, which at any time can lead to flooding of the adjacent territory.

In California, the evacuation of residents of the city of Oroville and neighboring areas has been announced due to the threat of a breakthrough of one of the largest dams in the United States. In total, 190 thousand people were ordered to be evacuated. California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in the area. According to the California Fire Service, 35,000 people were evacuated in Butte County, where Oroville is located, 65,000 in Yuba County, as well as 76,000 in Yuba City and 12,000 in Marysville.

The dam itself is intact, but an emergency spillway, designed to quickly empty in the event of a sharp rise in water levels, was destroyed on Sunday. According to the authorities, the spillway may not withstand the load and collapse at any moment, which will lead to the release of water from the Oroville Reservoir. The main spillway was also washed out earlier last week.

If the dam breaks, water could flood nearby cities. The water level in the Oroville Reservoir has risen due to heavy rainfall. Rainfall in Northern California is 228% above average at this time of year. “Dam failure like this is a disaster. We have established that we cannot repair the damage, ”said Bill Croyle, head of the California Water Authority, during a press conference.

The Oroville Dam on the Feather River is the tallest in the United States, reaching 230 m. The dam was built in the 1960s. Oroville Reservoir is the largest in California.

Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory for Surface Water Modeling at the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Bolgov: “You need to know the structure of this dam and what place an emergency spillway occupies in it in order to make a full forecast. But according to preliminary data, the consequences of its breakthrough can be catastrophic, there is a very large reservoir with a high pressure, so the destruction can be colossal. Typically, the spillway is arranged so that it starts working as soon as the reservoir becomes close to overflow. Operations are trying to never bring the situation to this point, this is a last resort. Why all the negative conditions have accumulated there so much, why this, roughly speaking, - the hole began to work in emergency mode, it is not clear. During construction, water conduits are specially left, which are then plugged with concrete. Maybe this is one of the remaining construction water pipelines, but, as I said, they are plugged in with concrete. The evacuation of people always occurs when the risks become great. This does not mean that the dam will definitely not withstand, but it is necessary to evacuate. It is necessary to carry out a full set of emergency measures, because it is better to resettle people than to catch the corpses later. There is only one way to lower the level - all spillways are opened, all turbines, if any in the dam, are turned on at full capacity, for this the thermal stations are shut down and in such a beyond design basis the hydraulic structure begins to work in order to reduce the pressure to this place as much as possible where the accident occurred. "

Former director for technical policy of JSC RusHydro Rasim Khaziakhmetov:“Information about the state of the Oroville dam is contradictory, too, I would say, in the media and does not allow us to accurately predict the consequences. If the media and local authorities overestimate the risks, nothing serious will happen. If the photos and videos of the first half of the day are accurate, then the watersheds can be destroyed and, again, the consequences will not be overly catastrophic, especially since the authorities have taken serious measures to evacuate the population. It was a little annoying that in one of the filming from a helicopter, signs of filtration of the dam itself are visible, but this is scary. Imagine that a landslide occurs and a wave with a height of more than 200 meters with a pressure of 20 atmospheres rushes down. Then it may happen that it was necessary to evacuate not 180 thousand people, but much more. There has already been an accident in history, when in 1963 a landslide occurred in Italy and water overflowed over the dam. Despite the fact that there was an almost flat desert around and the wave height was about 20 meters, several villages were washed away in 7 minutes, 3 thousand people died. Everything here seems much more dangerous. "

Former Deputy Energy Minister and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of RAO UES of Russia Viktor Kudryavy: “There is very little accurate information about the real situation with the dam, to what height it can collapse, at what speed, characteristics of the lake itself, the amount of water accumulated in it, what height difference downstream, terrain, whether there are turns that can provide overflow and mitigate the consequences. There are a lot of factors. But it can be seen that the foundation of the dam is good, since they are not very afraid, and a breakthrough can occur only in the upper part. The dynamics of destruction, the height and speed of the wave are terrible. Complete destruction will lead to a disaster the world has never seen before. I really hope that it will not happen. "

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya; group "Direct speech"

For the second day in the world, they are watching with tension the situation in California, where it can happen at any moment. The forces of the National Guard have been pulled into the region. The engineers managed to partially patch up the holes in the spillways, however, the main threat lies ahead. In the near future, torrential rains will return to the area of the dam, which is already barely holding back the onslaught of water.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of water rushed down through the concrete wall of the emergency spillway. The stream washed away the road, the slope changed beyond recognition - there are now like mountain river beds - narrow and seething.

The helicopters take off, taking sacks of boulders with them. Stones are thrown off to strengthen those places where it has already been washed out. In the same way, they are trying to somehow adjust the flows and fence off vital objects.

Urgent and mandatory evacuation of residents was notified through all channels - including automatically via smartphones. A message is forcibly displayed on the phone screen. A sharp signal sounds that cannot be ignored.

They were given 30 minutes to evacuate. During this time, the residents of the town of Oroville in California had to collect documents, take pets, the most necessary things, jump into the car and rush with all their might. Away from the unpredictable 235 meter high Oroville Dam.

"This is all very stressful, we are shocked. There are a lot of people, children - no one knows what to do now. Everyone is exhausted and upset that all plans have been disrupted," says California resident Joelen Hull.

After record rainfall in California, the level in Lake Oroville has gone up sharply. The dam holds back the pressure of 4.5 billion cubic meters of water.

The specialists of the hydroelectric power station, which is located underground, opened a spillway next to the dam, but a large gully formed in the concrete gutter, which was increasing every hour. Then they decided to close it and use an emergency spillway - this is a high concrete wall through which water, flowing, is discharged onto an unreinforced slope.

No one followed him, in many places he was overgrown with trees. It was no longer possible to calculate the consequences of the operation of the dam and the hydroelectric power station in such extreme conditions, so it was decided to evacuate 200 thousand people from nearby settlements. The dam itself, the authorities assure, is in order.

“Let me emphasize again - the dam itself is strong. And it is working reliably now during the record filling of the reservoir. Although we are faced with wear and tear on small fragments of the structure, which are extremely important for the operation of the dam,” said Bill Croyle, head of the California Department of Water Resources. ...

What happens in the worst-case scenario? There are only preliminary calculations. In a matter of hours, the town of Gridley can go under the water, then Live Oak, and they are 50 kilometers from the dam.

It turned out that the dam accident came as a surprise only to American officials. Back in 2005, three expert groups warned that in the event of heavy rainfall, the Oroville Dam spillways might not work. But neither local nor federal authorities paid attention to this.

"They should have been alerted that something was going wrong. They should have started thinking about what needs to be done in advance. And not delay until the last minute and then raise such a panic with everyone around," indignant local resident Robert Brabant.

It would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize the dam, built in the 1960s, and no one wanted to pay for it.

People are most interested in whether the dam is reliable and when they will be able to return to their homes. Now the level in the reservoir has been stabilized. At least until new precipitation.

In California, about 200 thousand residents are being evacuated due to the risk of breaking the Oroville Dam. This dam is the largest in the United States. The California police note that additional shelters and accommodation are currently being opened across the state.

In the United States, almost 200 thousand residents of the state of California are being evacuated due to the threat of a breakthrough of the Oroville Dam. This dam is considered the largest in America, its height is more than two hundred meters. The reservoir overflowed after a record rainfall for the region, and the spillway system could not withstand the load. The concrete structures were partially destroyed by the powerful stream. Residents of several large cities are hastily leaving their homes, reports.

At the Oroville Dam in California, a real disaster could happen at any moment. The volume of water that can escape from the storage threatens to instantly flood huge areas. Immediately after the discovery of a gap in the drainage system, the local authorities decided to urgently evacuate residents of all settlements located below the dam. First of all, this is the city of Oroville of the same name with a population of 16 thousand people, as well as a number of settlements located along the river Feter. The evacuation began on Monday night. In total, about 190 thousand people are being moved.

"We are now opening additional shelters in several cities. In the city of Chico, the Church of St. John is also open to receive evacuees. We will arrange additional places for accommodation. We will act as prescribed in the event of a flood," said Chico Police Chief Michael O "Brian.

To accommodate people, all free premises of schools, colleges and other areas are used, where temporary points of stay can be organized. The roads are full of cars. People are hastily leaving the dangerous area in private vehicles. Taking advantage of the fact that settlements are rapidly emptying, looters began to wield in some places. At least three stores were reported to have been robbed.

After years of drought, northern California has experienced heavy rainfall over the past few months. The water level in Lake Oroville rose rapidly. The first reports of engineers who discovered damage to the spillway at the dam were threatening. The collapse of the structure was expected at any moment. It was decided to use a back-up spillway, which had never been used before. But experts found a gap in it 90 meters wide and 150 meters long. The water pressure is constantly increasing and the hole in the spillway is increasing. Erosion of the main structure had already occurred in 2009 and 2013, but then the engineers were able to quickly repair the damage. Now the authorities have deployed helicopters, which are throwing stones into the open part of the drainage system to fill the gap. But the effectiveness of these actions may be low.

"At the moment, there are about one hundred thousand tons of water in the main spillway. We are now working closely with experts to make sure that we have the ability to eliminate the soil erosion that led to the damage to the dam. We were able to increase the amount of water discharged through the reserve spillway." - said the chief of civil defense of the state of California Kevin Lawson.

Dam in Oroville California breakthrough.

Helicopters are monitoring the collapse of a dam in California. Millions of online viewers watch as specialists try to patch a huge hole.

Dam in the USA collapses breaking news

The California National Guard is on full alert to assist authorities and communities in disaster relief in the event of a Lake Oroville dam break. This was announced on Monday by the spokesman for the US Department of Defense Jeffrey Davis.

About 23 thousand National Guardsmen are stationed in California. As the Pentagon spokesman assured, "the entire composition" of units in this state is "put on alert" in the event of a flood. The personnel are “ready for action” if the dam is breached, he added.

The Governor of the American state of California Jerry Brown asked the President of the United States Donald Trump for help. It is needed by the 188,000 residents affected by the collapse of the highest dam in the United States.

The population of nearby homes in the town of Oroville was evacuated due to concerns that the dam's emergency weir could not handle the pressure.

One of the most populous states in America today is under the threat of flooding. The dam on Lake Oroville is watched by millions of viewers live. They are trying to patch up the dam in which they found a giant hole. If the dam bursts, a huge mass of water will cover several cities at once.

It seems that this is what is called “one step away from disaster”. The footage filmed by cameramen from helicopters is impossible to watch calmly. And, it seems, even engineers can no longer say what is holding all this mass of water in a concrete pool.

California Gov. Jerry Brown earlier on Monday declared a state of emergency in three counties - Sutter, Butte and Yuba. Butte County Sheriff Coney Honey told a press conference that the water level in the lake "is dropping markedly, but the evacuation order remains in place." According to preliminary information, this order affects 188 thousand people.

USA dam in Oroville destruction photo

Dam in Oroville California breakthrough

Kevin Lawson, head of the emergency headquarters: “We are dropping rocks from helicopters. We are trying to fill this hole with stones in order to reduce the water pressure on the rest of the dam and prevent a catastrophe. "

The threat of collapse was caused by a hole the size of a football field in the main drainage system of the dam, and the reserve channel was damaged by erosion. The state water resources department redistributes flows to drainage systems in an optimal way, and also takes measures to reduce the water level in the lake. A plan has already been prepared for the use of helicopters, whose crews are to throw stones to the damaged section of the main drain in order to fill the gap.

A dam break in California could lead to uncontrollable consequences, warns professor and academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Alexander Solovyanov, deputy director of the All-Russian Research Institute for Nature Conservation.

Professor Solovyanov emphasized that a similar situation developed in due time during the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. And if there is a final breakthrough of the dam, then four million cubic meters of water will simply not be stopped.

In addition, the debris of the dam itself in this case will pose a separate danger.

Russian specialists in water management are ready to assist the United States in connection with the destruction of the dam, said Ilya Razbash, head of public relations and mass media at the Center for Development of the Water Management Complex of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources.

“If necessary, Russian specialists will be able to provide the necessary assistance to their American colleagues. For example, we provide similar consultations within the framework of cooperation with the countries of Southeast Asia and a number of African countries, ”Razbash said.