On the morning of Feb. 7, 2017, two electricians were working on a warning siren near the spillway of Oroville Dam, 60 miles north of Sacramento, when they heard an explosion. As they watched, a giant plume of water rose over their heads, and chunks of concrete began flying down the hillside toward the Feather River. The dam’s spillway, a concrete channel capable of moving millions of gallons of water out of the reservoir in seconds, was disintegrating in front of them. If it had to be taken out of service, a serious rainstorm, like the one that had been falling on Northern California for days, could cause the dam — the tallest in the United States — to fail.
Kory Honea, the sheriff of Butte County, which includes the dam and the town it is named for, first heard that something was wrong from Dino Corbin, a local radio personality, who called him at his office: “Are you aware there’s a hole in the spillway?” Around the same time, one of the sheriff’s dispatchers received a confusing message from California’s Department of Water Resources, which owns the dam, saying it was conducting a “routine inspection” after reports of an incident.
At the dam, department officials closed the gates at the top of the spillway to prevent any more of its concrete slabs from being lost in what an independent forensic report prepared after the incident described as “a sudden, explosive failure.” The flow of water stopped. The rain, however, didn’t.
In the six years since the near-failure of the Oroville Dam, dam operators across the country have begun to reassess the structures under their control, looking for hidden weaknesses: the cracks in the spillway, the hillside that crumbles at the first sign of water. That work is necessary, but it may not be enough to prevent the next disaster. Bigger storms are on the way.
This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
Will Threads Kill Twitter?
The Sunday Read: ‘The Spy Who Called Me’
The Complicated Future of Student Loans
Russia After the Rebellion
How MrBeast Became the Willy Wonka of YouTube
From Serial: ‘The Retrievals’
A Clash Between Religious Faith and Gay Rights
The Sunday Read: ‘A Week With the Wild Children of the A.I. Boom’
The Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action
Is Washington Finally Ready to Take On Big Tech?
Suspicion, Cheating and Bans: A.I. Hits America’s Schools
Speaker McCarthy Has Lost Control of His House
A 36-Hour Rebellion in Russia
Understanding Ukraine’s Counteroffensive
Lost 2 Miles Below the Ocean
The Re-Militarization of Germany
Inflation Is Way Down. Is It by Design or Just Luck?
The Sunday Read: ‘The High-Risk Feat of Bringing ‘American Born Chinese’ to TV’
The Kids Take the Climate Change Fight to Court
How Saudi Arabia Took on Pro Golf — and Won
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Post Reports
Up First
Today, Explained
WSJ What’s News
Planet Money