Oroville update: Evacuation order remains as officials want ‘100 percent’ safety assurance

7:55 a.m.Evacuees from the Oroville area have been trickling into the Sacramento Red Cross shelter at the Cal Expo Racetrack Grandstand since 10 a.m. Monday. About 60 evacuees are using the RV and campgrounds, eating donated hot meals and staying warm, said...

Oroville update: Evacuation order remains as officials want ‘100 percent’ safety assurance

7:55 a.m.

Evacuees from the Oroville area have been trickling into the Sacramento Red Cross shelter at the Cal Expo Racetrack Grandstand since 10 a.m. Monday.

About 60 evacuees are using the RV and campgrounds, eating donated hot meals and staying warm, said Mike Jaime, Red Cross volunteer .

“This is their house right now, some of them have been through a lot,” Jaime said.

Jessica Hice

7:25 a.m.

The Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is opening its doors to pets of Oroville-area residents who have left their homes due to mandatory evacuations.

The animal shelter said it had limited space to house large and small dogs, as well as cats at no costs to pet owners. Several Oroville-area residents said they were forced to leave their four-legged companions at home while evacuating from their homes Sunday night.

Interested pet-owners are encouraged to call the Sacramento SPCA, located at 6201 Florin-Perkins Road, at (916) 504-2829 to reserve space for their pets.

Nashelly Chavez

6:40 a.m.

Crews working through the night atop the crippled Oroville Dam have made solid progress in shoring up the damaged emergency spillway, state officials reported Tuesday morning.

The state officials said they are not, however, ready to end the evacuation order that has displaced tens of thousands of residents of Oroville and other cities in the Feather River floodplain.

“We don’t want to bring them back until we are 100 percent assured that they can stay back in their homes,” Chris Orrock of the state Department of Water Resources said.

Helicopters had not been deployed yet early Tuesday to drop large bags of rocks and debris into the large crevice on the emergency spillway. On Monday, the rocks were spread by a dozer, then covered by cement, at the Lake Oroville emergency spillway.

“We’re preparing for that next weather system coming in,” said Orrock. “We’re looking pretty good right now. The next couple of days will be telling.”

The dam’s damaged main spillway continues to carry 100,000 cubic feet of water per second.

Inspectors say the spillway is holding steady, and does not appear to be further eroded by the outflows in recent days.

Lake levels meanwhile continue to drop overnight. Water resources official say they would like to see the level at 860 feet by Thursday when inflows should be starting from this weeks expected rains. That would put the lake level at more than 40 feet below the top of the emergency spillway.

It was at 889 feet as of 6 a.m.

Tony Bizjak

6:15 a.m.

Lake Oroville water levels continue to fall as state officials send nearly 100,000 cubic feet of water per second down the main spillway in hopes of dropping the reservoir as much as 25 feet by the time the next storm arrives Wednesday night.

According to the latest state data, the lake was at 889.49 feet as of 6 a.m., more than 13 feet below where it stood when evacuation orders came down Sunday evening.

Will it hold? Oroville Dam makes it through a key test

Crews are working furiously to bolster eroded sections of the emergency spillway. That damage occurred after the lake topped 901 feet on Saturday morning and sent water over the concrete lip of that spillway for the first time since Oroville Dam was built in 1968.

Evacuations of 188,000 people from Oroville down to Plumas Lake remain in effect. With little notice, residents fled Sunday night to evacuation centers, hotels and relatives’ homes throughout the region, including the greater Sacramento area. Emergency shelters are operating in Roseville, Woodland and at Cal Expo. The area’s Sikh temples also have opened up their doors to help evacuees.

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Evacuees wait to return after Oroville Dam threat: 'This is not happening'

Yuba City evacuee Merida Lozano waits at the Yolo County Fairgrounds for word that it is safe to return home. She and many others have been displaced by evacuations after damage to the Oroville Dam spillway. Monday, February 13, 2017.

Angela Hart The Sacramento Bee \

Yuba City evacuee Merida Lozano waits at the Yolo County Fairgrounds for word that it is safe to return home. She and many others have been displaced by evacuations after damage to the Oroville Dam spillway. Monday, February 13, 2017.

Kevin Yamamura

Tony Bizjak: 916-321-1059, @TonyBizjak

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