Monday, February 13, 2017

Water, Nearly Everywhere

We were glued to the set Sunday night as the emergency spillway for the Oroville Dam threatened to rupture and send a 30-foot wall of water down the Feather River. (I used to visit my uncle in Paradise, a few miles from Oroville and Oroville Dam. Paradise would have been out of the water's path.) Failure could have occurred any minute, and 180,000 people were evacuated.

Fortunately the rain abated, and the dam operators were able to release water quickly enough to take the pressure off the spillways. Evacuees have the option of moving back, and more rain is expected this weekend.

The five-year drought is almost over. We know this because newspapers have begun writing stories about great California floods.

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