Those of you who have heard about the problems at Oroville Dam in northern California may wonder if I am among the 180,000 people that have had to be evacuated. Fortunately, I live about 50 miles north of the affected area, so I have been able to stay put. It was reported that the Tehama County Fairgrounds, a couple of miles from my house, were going to house some evacuees, but as of this morning, there were no visible signs that any had arrived. This story in The Atlantic is among many that have reported on the situation:
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2017/02/how-did-the-oroville-dam-get-so-bad/516429/
Things are much better where I live, but evidence of our overabundance of water is still easy to find. This morning, I took pictures of the Sundial Bridge in Redding, where the Sacramento River is barely below the bridge itself. This is due to releases of water from the upstream Shasta Dam, where the lake is filling just as fast as the one in Oroville. Fortunately, there are no spillway problems at Shasta, so I’m not concerned about having to evacuate any time soon. Nevertheless, these events show that it’s not just in places like Mosul, Iraq where infrastructure can demand attention on short notice.
