Oroville Dam crisis: 5 things to know for Thursday

Feb. 16--Here are five things you need to know about the Oroville Dam crisis for Thursday.

1. Lake level keeps dropping as flows stay high

The Department of Water Resources continued overnight to pump nearly 750,000 gallons of water per second out of the Oroville Dam. As of about 6 a.m. Thursday, the lake is at just less than 870 feet, or just more than 30 feet below the emergency spillway. The DWR's goal is 850 feet and the lake is dropping about six inches per hour on average, according to DWR data.

Acting DWR Director Bill Croyle said Wednesday helicopters will continue, as weather allows, to dump rocks on the damaged emergency spillway in efforts to curb the hillside erosion.

Rain is in the forecast for Oroville well into next week with a flash flood watch in effect through 4 a.m. Sunday, according to the National Weater Service. About a third of an inch of rain has fallen as of 7 a.m. Thursday at the Oroville Airport. About a third of the 100,000 cubic-feet per second of water flowing out of the dam is coming into the lake through rain and runoff, according to DWR data.

2. Oroville is open again, for now

Businesses began reopening en masse Wednesday, a day after authorities lifted mandatory evacuations for the Butte County town. Many are returning to their day-to-day lives, though the threat of new evacuations is keeping people on alert and businesses are trying to recoup lost earnings from the near-three-day closure.

Sheriff Kory Honea is keeping an evacuation warning in place until the crisis at the dam passes. The California National Guard has also sent 150 people to Oroville, though Honea said Wednesday they're on standby until needed.

Schools in Butte County, except for schools in the Chico and Paradise school districts, are closed through Friday. Monday is a holiday, so students return to classrooms by Tuesday.

Yuba and Sutter schools are also closed until next week.

3. Evacuees looking to recoup lost profits or wages are on their own

Businesses or individuals hoping to recoup lost profits or wages due to being displaced by the Oroville Dam crisis are on their own -- for now.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency relief package that covers Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties is for public assistance and does not cover individuals or businesses.

4. Interest in flood insurance rises during dam crisis

Although mandatory evacuations have ceased for Butte County residents near a damaged spillway at the Oroville Dam, questions are being raised about flood insurance in preparation for a storm that could unleash a torrent on nearby communities later this week.

The problem is that for Oroville residents, it may too late to acquire flood insurance that would cover the immediate threat, said Edith Lohmann, a national flood insurance specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. With few exceptions, flood insurance plans take a month to go into effect, Lohmann said.

5. Oroville Dam puts country's aging dams in spotlight

The frantic efforts to prevent a catastrophe downstream of the Oroville Dam once again has put back into the spotlight the safety of the country's dams as they get older and more expensive to repair.

The most recent data compiled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives a decidedly mixed picture of inspections in California. About 45 percent of the state's 1,585 bridges were due for an inspection, according to the National Inventory of Dams' report released in January 2016.

Similarly, in the North State about half of its bridges had fallen behind their scheduled checks. The list features dams with high-hazard potential -- because of the destruction they can cause if they fail -- such as the one in Oroville as well as privately owned dams.

The inspections backlog falls in line with the Report Card for America's Infrastructure for 2013, which assigned a D to the country's maintenance of 84,000 dams. The next report card is due out March 9.

In its 2013 report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave dams the poor grade largely because it found 4,000 of them are deficient, meaning they are in need of repair and half of them may cause damage or loss of life if they fail. The estimated price tag to fix those dams is $21 billion, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated.

Interactive graphic showing before and after changes at the Oroville Dam

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