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That viral video of the California dam nearly failing last spring was missing the real story | Behind the Headlines - Vivisector

ruby659•3mo ago

That viral video of the California dam nearly failing last spring was missing the real story

I saw that footage from the Oroville Dam spillway crisis all over my feed back in February, but nobody mentioned the concrete debris that had been piling up there for weeks before the crack got huge. My cousin works maintenance for the state water project, and he told me inspectors had flagged small spalling as early as January, but the repair crew was told to wait until after the rainy season. Then came that big February storm, and the whole thing started crumbling fast. They ended up dumping 1,200 truckloads of rocks into the emergency spillway to stop it from washing out the highway below. The news showed the dramatic drone shots, sure, but they skipped the part where the county had no backup plan for evacuating 188,000 people if that dam gave way. Has anyone else looked into the maintenance reports that came out six months before it happened?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake7473mo ago

So if the state inspectors had flagged the spalling back in January, why did the repair crew get told to sit on their hands? That part makes no sense unless someone was trying to save a few bucks short-term and willing to gamble on the weather holding out. Did your cousin ever hear if the order came from a specific manager or if it was more of a "everyone knew but nobody wanted to be the one to push the button" kind of deal? Cause that kind of decision making gets people killed when you're dealing with a dam that holds back that much water. The county having zero evacuation plan for 188,000 people is insane too, like who approved that. That August 2016 report sounds like the key piece - send it over if you find it.

jenny_lee3mo ago

That line about "everyone knew but nobody wanted to push the button" hits hard, it's shameful how slow they were.

stellat463mo ago

My cousin actually told me about the concrete spalling back in January before anything hit the news. He said the repair crew had a stack of flagged issues on the spillway but were told to hold off until spring because of budget cycles or something. Then that February storm rolled in and everything went sideways fast. They ended up dumping over a thousand truckloads of rock into that emergency spillway to keep it from washing out the highway below, but nobody mentioned the county had no real evacuation plan for the 188,000 people downstream. If you want the real story, check the CA Department of Water Resources maintenance reports from August 2016 - they had a whole section on the spillway's concrete condition that got buried until after the crisis. I saved a copy of those reports somewhere if you want me to dig them up.