Oroville Dam crisis: 5 things to know for Wednesday

Feb. 15--Here are five things you need to know about the Oroville Dam crisis for Wednesday.

1. President Donald Trump declares Oroville Dam crisis a disaster

President Donald Trump declared a federal disaster late Tuesday for areas affected by a potential collapse in a spillway that holds back Lake Oroville, California's second-largest reservoir, even as authorities told 188,000 evacuated downstream residents they could go home.

The president's order covers Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It authorizes FEMA to coordinate relief efforts and opens up federal emergency aid to state, tribal and local agencies.

2. Evacuees return home, though warning remains in place

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea lifted mandatory evacuations for Oroville and other areas of the county midday Wednesday, allowing thousands to return to their homes. Still, those residents are preparing to possibly leave again later this week. Honea shifted the evacuation to a "warning," and said residents should be ready to go should he decide to evacuate those areas under flood threat again.

Wet weather later this week could spell more trouble for the dam, though officials said storms shouldn't be as strong as the recent systems that have pushed lake levels to their highest.

3. Officials pin hope on temporary patch to emergency spillway

Helicopters, trucks and heavy machinery on Tuesday worked to shore up the eroded emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam. It's a temporary but necessary fix to avoid erosion to the hillside that could cause the uncontrolled release of water from Lake Oroville and flood downstream communities.

Officials, however, are pumping out of the lake more than triple the water that's coming in, according to California Department of Water Resources data. They're releasing nearly 100,000 cubic feet of water per second.

The main spillway at the dam is also damaged but is holding under the higher-than-normal releases.

4. Scammers target evacuation zones

The Yuba County Sheriff's Office late Tuesday said scammers are calling people and telling them to pay a fee for staying home during the evacuation, the department posted on its Facebook page.

Officials said the calls or notices are indeed an attempt to defraud people who chose not to evacuate and no such fines are being imposed.

5. School's out for now

Students in the formerly evacuated areas will have the rest of the week off, officials said Tuesday.

Most schools evacuated in Yuba and Sutter counties will resume Tuesday, both counties' offices of education said. Countywide, 13,000 to 14,000 students were affected by the evacuation.

The Sutter County Office of Education announced on its Facebook page that all schools would be closed through Monday, possibly later.

Butte County's Office of Education also announced that all classes "will resume their normal instructional calendar" on Monday. Since that's Presidents Day, classes presumably will start up Tuesday for most.

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