Engineers LOSING the battle to behind California’s dam before new storm hits
Engineers are LOSING the battle to lower water behind California’s crumbling dam by 50ft before new storm hits on Wednesday – after admitting the waters have only dropped 11ft in 24 hours Water level at Lake Oroville has only been reduced by 11ft since it reached its capacity on Saturday afternoon Department of Water Resources had hoped to lower it by 50ft before storms hit as soon as Wednesday night Water is being drained from the lake down by the damaged main spillway at a rate of 750, 000 gallons per second It still may not be enough to lower the water levels sufficiently before rain hits which will cause it to rise again 200,000 residents in California may be displaced for weeks as emergency services race to repair spillways They left in ‘pure chaos’ when a sudden evacuation order was issued on Sunday after days of assurances from officials that the situation was safe Environmental groups predicted the exact chain of events in 2003 but had their fears ignored by officials Now officials are working to patch up the emergency spillway as water gushes down the damaged main spillway.