Trump OKs disaster relief as Californians return home

OROVILLE, Calif. — President 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.

As residents slowly returned to the evacuated communities of Oroville, Yuba City and others along the Feather River on Tuesday, many expressed deep wariness about the situation. They remained under an evacuation “warning,” and Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said they should be ready to pick up and leave again if the situation deteriorates.

Upstream from them at the nation’s tallest dam, crews continued what a state Department of Water Resources executive called 24/7 efforts to shore up the erosion that had led them to fear a total collapse of the emergency spillway. Caravans of trucks brought large rocks while helicopters ferried them into position and dropped them into the crevasse.

The lake level dropped a few more feet overnight as officials continued to pump water out of the reservoir. Nearly 100,000 cubic feet — almost 750,000 gallons — of water per second is moving out of the dam, more than triple the water flowing into the lake from recent storm runoff, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The lake is down about 21 feet from the emergency spillway.

As of 9 a.m. PT Wednesday, Lake Oroville was at 878.63 feet, down more than 24 feet from a high of almost 903 feet above sea level at 3 a.m. Sunday. Officials are trying to get the lake level to 850 feet.

As the news of the evacuation order being changed to a warning spread through the Silver Dollar Fair grounds in Chico, people sheltering there immediately started leaving.

Robert Kint, 57, from Oroville celebrated with his wife.

"It's official! We can go home. We're going home," he told her. "Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart."

Still, there was no broad rush home for evacuated residents. And some who did go back Tuesday afternoon weren’t planning to stay.

Alicia Tindel, 37, and her daughter returned to Yuba City, but she said she is staying long enough to regroup and repack items they didn't have time to grab — including snow gear and bathing suits to prepare for wherever they end up.

"If you live (in Yuba City), you know evacuation is a possibility," Tindel said. "We are very aware that this could happen."

At the city’s Regency Park, Debbie Canonica also said she’s not staying in town — just doing laundry and picking up more clothes. She stayed with her daughter Jill Mattson in Sutter during the mandatory evacuation and plans to go back until the next storm, which is forecast to arrive Thursday, has safely passed.

Yuba City is downstream of Oroville, where the evacuation also has been lifted and replaced with a warning.

“It seems irresponsible to let people back into Oroville,” Mattson said.

State and local officials tried Tuesday to both reassure jittery residents that they're now safe and defend the decision to disrupt life in multiple communities downstream of Oroville Dam with an emergency evacuation.

In his remarks to the press at an early afternoon news conference, Honea defended the Sunday evening order.

"Thousands of lives were protected from the looming prospect of a catastrophic failure," he said.

But Honea then pivoted to say the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam, where erosion triggered the evacuation order, was never compromised.

"With the water level reduced, geologists and dam-safety engineering specialists from the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers were able to inspect the damage," he said. "That inspection revealed that the integrity of the emergency spillway was not compromised by the erosion."

Bill Croyle, acting director of the state Department of Water Resources, said the spillway has been stable for four days.

Croyle said more than 120 construction workers are part of aggressive efforts to fortify the damaged spillway.

“We’re drawing down the lake, attacking the spillway, reinforcing the spillway,” Croyle said. “It’s going to be a busy construction season.”

The goal now is to remove as much water from the river as possible, Croyle said.

“We need to prepare for all contingencies,” he said. “We want to make sure it can take higher flows, but the additional measures will be taken in the coming days and weeks. We’re not going to stop.”

Meanwhile, business owners began the process of getting back to normal.

“I am so elated; I think everybody is,” Sandy Linville, president of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t think the economic impact is going to be as deep as I was thinking, thankfully. There is going to be some pain felt, but I don’t think the cut will be as deep as it could have been.”

Linville also is president of the Oroville Economic Alliance.

Raley’s on Myers Street in Oroville reopened at 3 p.m. PT Tuesday and planned to remain open until midnight, spokeswoman Chelsea Minor said.

“We were able to turn around quickly,” Minor said.

The store did not lose any perishable products because power was never cut off, Minor said.

O’Reilly Auto Parts in Oroville also never closed. Assistant Manager Courtney Salazar said the store has been busy helping DWR officials with repair work to the damaged emergency spillway.

“They have been calling and we have been running stuff to them: brake rotors, pads, filters, hinge pins — all that kind of stuff,” Salazar said.

Most schools evacuated in Yuba and Sutter counties will resume next Tuesday, both counties' offices of education said.

But Yuba County Superintendent of Schools Francisco Reveles said some superintendents from within his district are still mulling their options, and it can be a difficult decision.

"There are two trains of thought: One is, we need to give the families time to adjust ... bringing back staff, they're all over in the evacuation center," he said. "The other one, though ... we need to bring them in as soon as possible so we can help them adjust, be a source of support."

Countywide, 13,000 to 14,000 students were affected by the evacuation, Reveles said.

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.

Contributing: Amber Sandhu, Sean Longoria, David Benda, Alayna Shulman, Nathan Solis, Redding (Calif.) Record Searchlight; Sarah Litz, Mike Higdon, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal.

Related: