OROVILLE >> Evacuation orders for 200,000 people in communities downstream of the Oroville Dam were lifted Tuesday, when officials announced they did not think the broken spillways presented an immediate danger.
It ended a three-day, two-night ordeal for an exodus of residents along the Feather River, who were told Sunday afternoon that a rupture of the emergency spillway was imminent. Such an event would send a 30-foot-tall wall of water hurtling downstream, first hitting Oroville and eventually flooding Yuba City, 30 miles to the south.
Word traveled fast. Soon after the announcement at 1:45 p.m., cars were streaming back to Oroville.
“The first thing I said was ‘Thank God I can go back to work!’” said Ellis Ridgway, 33, a maintenance man at a fast-food restaurant. “My wife told me she never thought she’d hear those words come out of my mouth.”
The reduction of the order to an evacuation warning means that people can return to their homes and businesses, but are asked to remain vigilant should conditions change for the worse.
As residents began returning home, Gov. Jerry Brown’s office announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved the governor’s requests for federal assistance to support communities affected by the Oroville Dam crisis and to help with the impacts of January’s destructive storms.
“This federal aid will get money and resources where it’s needed most,” Brown said in a statement.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Tuesday the lake level had dropped to where it no longer posed a threat of going over the emergency spillway.
He added that an inspection of the hole that was created by water coming over the rim on Sunday revealed no additional erosion that “compromised the overall integrity” of the spillway.
In addition, the emergency spillway has been fortified against future wear — trucks and helicopters have been steadily dumping boulders in the gash since Sunday — and there’s a “reasonable sustainable course” of letting high volumes of water out of the primary spillway that reduces the need to use the emergency spillway in the future.
Officials added that this week’s incoming storms are not expected to lift the lake’s level significantly.
“As a result of these actions, the need for evacuation has been significantly reduced,” Honea said. “Looking at the current level of risk, and the predicted strength of the next round of storms and the capacity of the lake to accommodate the rain, we have concluded that it is safe to reduce the order to an evacuation warning.”
But Honea stressed that people needed to be watchful of conditions that could rapidly change.
“They have to be vigilant,” he said. “They need to pay attention to what’s going on. We could issue another evacuation order if the situation changes.”
Tandra Garber, 39, was headed back to Oroville on Tuesday afternoon with Patrick Monday, 40, in a car laden with possessions that included five fishing poles and a chihuahua. She said the evacuation “was like being in an end-of-the-world movie.”
They’d been staying with relatives in a packed home with people sleeping on floors, and no idea when the evacuation would end. While she has lingering fears about the dam, she said she believes “the worst is over” and is looking forward to some quiet.
“I feel relieved,” she said. “We’re going fishing right now to stay out of everyone’s way.”
Monday said he had no qualms about being ordered to flee by authorities in the face of a worst-case scenario that didn’t materialize.
“I believe they did exactly what they needed to do,” he said. “If they didn’t there could have been 30 feet of water coming down — and there would have been loss of life.”
Officials said that the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico would remain open as an evacuation center for residents who remained wary of going back home.
Bill Croyle, acting director of the state Department of Water Resources, said that they aim to avoid using the dam’s eroded emergency spillway at all — last weekend marked the first and only time in the dam’s 50-year history that water flowed over its lip. But he said they will continue to shore up the slope in the event that it needs to be used again.
“Our goal is to remove as much water from the reservoir as possible so we don’t have to use it,” Croyle said. “But as we learned from the past week, we must prepare for all contingencies and additional measures will be taken in the coming days and weeks. We’re not going to stop, we’re going to keep on it, reduce the risk.”
Croyle said the primary spillway, despite its dramatic deep gash that sends plumes of rushing water high into the sky, has not eroded any more in the past four days and can continue to be used at 100,000 cubic feet per second.
Department of Water spokesman Chris Orrock said all the dirt that could be washed away is gone as evidenced by the clarity of the deluge.
“There’s no further erosion of the spillway,” he said. “Clear water is coming out because it’s hitting bedrock.”
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