The lake level continues to fall behind Oroville Dam, even as more rain is falling in Northern California. Officials say Lake Oroville went down an additional five feet on Wednesday, and it is now at least 26 feet below the emergency spillway.
Crews are expected to continue to work around the clock, regardless of weather conditions, to make emergency repairs to the emergency spillway. It was erosion on that earthen spillway that prompted the evacuation of about 190,000 people living in communities below the dam. Barges and cranes are being mobilized to remove debris and sediment from the diversion pool.
Getty Images
100,000 cubic feet per second of water continues to flow through the damaged primary flood control spillway in an effort to accommodate anticipated inflow from the storms coming through this part of the state between and next Monday. There is some good news on these storms for the crews making repairs the spillways. Forecasters are saying the storms will bring colder temperatures, so the precipitation will turn to snow at higher elevations instead of coming downstream into Lake Oroville immediately. That is is why officials believe lake levels will continue to decrease throughout the storm activity.
For information on lake conditions; including lake levels, inflows, and outflows you can visit this website.