Oroville Dam crisis 5 years later: The evacuation and events that sent 180,000 people fleeing

OROVILLE — Oroville Dam’s main spillway had a hole, and Lake Oroville was rising.

The Department of Water Resources tested sending water through the spillway, and it seemed to work, but the erosion around the hole was getting worse, and the bottom of the spillway was falling apart.

On Feb. 11, 2017, water began flowing over the emergency spillway, which at the time was a long concrete weir and had never been used before.

As the hillside beside the Oroville Dam continued to erode, the real crisis began Feb. 12, 2017.

Sheriff takes action

Oroville’s Dam crisis in 2017 left an indelible mark on all who were affected by the events of that day.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea felt emotionally affected by the events of the crisis.

“It is not easy to relive,” Honea said. “I was very concerned that a lot of people in my community were going to die. It frightened and traumatized our county.”

“The California Department of Water Resources expressed serious concern. Someone said it was going to be catastrophic. He said it could kill people, and that’s what I was worried about,” Honea said.

Honea said the erosion was progressing rapidly, about 30 feet per hour.

“I decided to order the evacuation after announcing I would order it in a public meeting. I asked if anyone disagreed. No one did so I ordered the evacuation. The emergency spillway had to be utlilized,” Honea said.

Honea said 180,000 people were affected by the emergency. He said it affected Butte County and also Sutter County, which the Feather River runs through downstream. An event of this magnitude had never occurred before.

“It is a pretty significant event in the history of Butte County and became a national story,” Honea said. “There was an erosion of water progressing rapidly toward the emergency spillway.”

According to Honea, the evacuation happened in the afternoon Feb. 12, 2017 but there was a whole week of escalating concerns leading up to it, beginning Feb. 7. A hole in the main spillway appeared. It was a massive hole. There was an extensive forensic report done as well as hearings and state legislature about what could have caused that. The majority of Orovillle was under evacuation.

“There was an effort on part of my staff and other law enforcement. We thought about providing shelter for people. On the California Department of Water Resources’ side there was a monumental part to keep the emergency control spillway from failing,” Honea said.

“DWR’s Acting Director Bill Croyle and his crew were doing everything they could to prevent flooding. There were ways it could be released from the reservoir. It was a critical impact on the water state project. By 3 or 4 a.m. the following day, enough water was released,” Honea said.

There was no longer any water cascading over the top of the emergency spillway.

“We made an effort to start utilizing Blackhawk helicopters which were lifting thousand pound bags of rock and sand to put in the hole and then spray with concrete to cover the structure. It was a temporary solution to abate the crisis. California spent probably a billion dollars to reconstruct the flood control outlet,” Honea said.

According to Honea, billions of dollars were spent to repair the spillway to regulate the water. The water was high enough to do that.

A concrete apron was built under the emergency spillway, which DWR says will prevent erosion should the emergency spillway need to be used again.

“This event for Oroville and Butte County was like our Sept. 11,” Honea said. “The impact was felt locally and regionally.”

Honea said a lot of heroic efforts were made that day.

“As we move forward we want to prevent this from ever happening again,” he said.

Vice mayor’s experience

Oroville City Council Councilor Janet Goodson remembers that day very well. “The mayor at that time was at an out of state conference. I had just been elected a month prior as a new council member and voted in as the vice mayor by the council,” Goodson said.

“I received a phone call from Don Rust, who was the acting city administrator, at that time and was given briefing information that there was a significant break in the spillway and to come immediately to city hall. I remember my first phone call was to the general manager, Ron Roman, of the Operating Engineers, local three in Yuba City. I simply said, ‘Ron, stop what you are doing, the spillway has broken and we need your men and equipment,’” Goodson said.

Goodson said when she arrived at city hall, she was escorted to an initial meeting at the Cal Fire-Butte County office with a room full of local and state officials including Oroville Police Department, Oroville Fire Department, DWR, the sheriff and other government officials.

“Shortly thereafter, the Command Center was relocated to a more permanent location to the California State Parks office off of Glen Drive. For approximately two weeks, council members, Delrosario, Draper, Berry, Hatley and myself attended debriefings each morning to get concise and accurate information to disseminate to our constituent base,” Goodson said.

“When the sheriff gave the order to evacuate the city, my husband, Pastor David Goodson, and I drove separate vehicles and called neighbors that were without transportation and picked them up on our way out of the area. There was gridlock in both directions on Highway 70 and 99. People were walking on opposite sides of the streets with whatever they could carry and animals in tow. No one was prepared for this day. This crisis stopped everyone dead in their tracks and propelled us all into survival mode, afraid for our lives and our loved ones,” Goodson said.

Goodson said recreation activities were greatly affected by the crisis.

“The spillway break not only disrupted our daily routines but severely impacted the outdoor activities that we all enjoy and take for granted. Seventy-five percent of the bike trails were closed. Seventy percent of the horseback trails were closed and 60 percent of the hiking trails were closed as well. The Riverbend Park took a huge hit and our downtown businesses lost sizable revenue,” Goodson said.

Saving pipes

The crisis also affected residents in Butte County and other areas.

The morning the spillway broke, Jim Moll and his wife Claudia were taking a walk along the river by the Feather River Nature Center.

“The river was high and running fast but there was no evacuation order and we didn’t know there would be one,” said Moll.

When the Molls returned home in the early afternoon, they found out about the evacuation order. Although their home is above the flood plain and wasn’t impacted by the order, Moll, president of the State Theatre Arts Guild, was concerned about the 50 new pipes for the State Theatre’s organ. They were being stored at the Oroville Chinese Temple which was included in the evacuation order.

Moll, along with other STAGE volunteers, went into action. They rented a large U-Haul truck in Brownsville and drove it to the Chinese Temple. While the evacuation order was in place, volunteers scrambled to move the organ pipes from the temple to the second floor of the theater and to a hastily rented storage unit east of town.

“I guess I can confess now that it took us most of the next day to get them all moved. It was quite a project but we got it done,” recalled Moll.

Evacuating

It was late afternoon when Nancy Rivera, who lives on Grant Avenue in downtown Oroville, got word about the evacuation order.

“My neighbor came running out of his house screaming, ‘Nancy the dam’s gonna blow! Get out of here,’ and then got in his vehicle and took off,” said Rivera. “Then the police came down the street and told us we had to evacuate. I knew it was the spillway and not the dam because I follow the news.”

Rivera, her two daughters, grandson and the family dog loaded up to leave in one vehicle. Rivera’s sister and her husband and daughter and the family’s cats were in a second vehicle. The two-car caravan headed out of the city.

Rivera recalls it was stop and go traffic on Highway 162 and she was concerned about making it to Chico because her car was low on gas.

“Everything, and I mean everything, was closed so I just had to hope I’d have enough gas to get to Chico,” she said.

It took Rivera and her family 90 minutes to reach the evacuation site in Chico. The family spent four days away from their homes.

“I was never afraid. I have insurance on the house. I don’t run with fear. Whatever’s going to happen is what’s going to happen. I can’t predict it. I can’t worry about it. I just deal with what does happen. All my family were with me and that’s what mattered,” said Rivera.