Photo: KCRA

Siskiyou County Sheriff sends team to assist with Oroville Dam emergency

Photo: KCRA

Siskiyou County, Ore. – The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office has sent a unit to assist in Oroville, California after over 180,000 people were ordered to evacuate due to severe erosion on Lake Oroville’s emergency spillway.

Sacramento NBC affiliate KCRA reports the spillway could fail, potentially sending a 30-foot wall of water into the Feather River Basin.

Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey said he sent a detective, a sergeant and a deputy to the area to assist. He has also placed a water safety team on alert in the event boating units are needed for “future flooding or dam failure emergencies.”

Sheriff Lopey said, “I just talked to Sheriff Tom Bosenko, the regional coordinator for the California Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Plan (Region III) and he advised me the situation has stabilized and some resources may be released; however, depending on the emergency spillway holding and structural reinforcement efforts working, and, additional dependent on what occurs with rainfall that could be a factor later in the week, the situation is still a very unpredictable.”

KCRA reports water levels at the lake dropped Monday morning, stopping water from spilling over the auxiliary spillway. However, evacuation orders remain in effect for many communities downstream from the lake.

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