The picture above is from an old postcard
showing a team of horses building the levee in Oroville in the summer of
1907. (after the flood)
The 1907 Flood is the flood our current levee
system was based on. Flood stakes were put out to mark the high water. "The
flood height of the Feather River at Oroville during the March 1907 flood
was the greatest ever observed...4 lives were lost" (USACE Flood Plain Study 1968)
The Oroville Levee will be 90 years old this
summer! |
the clip above is from the Appeal Democrat)
The 1955 Flood 38 deaths Flood damage
est. $20,500,00.00
"The floods of December 1955 were the
most widespread and destructive of any in the recorded history of northern
California since the legendary floods of 1862 and 1867. (USACE
Flood Plain Study 1968) |
USACE 1968 (30 years ago) Flood Plain Study for the Feather
and Yuba River... some excerpts...
"On the Feather River, the December 1964 flood was
the largest flood peak of record. The 253,000 cubic feet per second peak
inflow to Oroville Resovoir was about 10% larger than the previous maximum
of record at Oroville in 1907, and about 25% larger than the December 1955
peak flow at Oroville. However, inflow to Oroville Resovoir was reduced
to an outflow of about 158,000 cubic feet per second."(USACE Flood Plain Study 1968)
"PROJECT DESIGN CAPACITY reach Feather River - Oroville
Dam to Yuba River 210,000" "STANDARD PROJECT FLOOD is based on
a peak inflow of 440,000 cfs"(USACE Flood Plain
Study 1968)
The inflow into the Oroville Resovoir on January 1 1997
was 296,000 cubic feet of water per second (17% higher than 1964), the outflow
was 180,000 cfs.
So the 1997 storm was huge but it was within the design
of the system (theoretically we were within 17% of Max capacity before the
levees were overtopped). The weak link of the system, the sand levees simply
broke again (do to seepage failure/piping) rcm. |
