Water can't flow 150 miles an hour, Jer. So I was safe. And it wasn't even raining last Friday when I went up there. But it's a big problem for sure. 150 to 180 thousand people evacuated, and no end date for that mandatory evacuation is known yet. More rain expected Weds or Thursday, for one thing. And the snow pack is damn near double the normal amount. A warm storm could still mean a lot of trouble at this site and elsewhere in Cali. The Don Pedro reservoir near Yosemite, for example, is at over 98% of capacity right now, with all that snow up above it, and they're doing everything they can to get this one--Lake Oroville--down by 50 feet this week.
Unlike many other states, we rely on reservoirs for our water because we have very dry summers but lots of snow in the mountains. That's our water storage, usually, but a warm spring rain always causes problems, and with about 180% of normal snow right now in the mountains, it's a scary year. The state Dept. of Water Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers (which share responsibility) usually want at least a cushion of 20% of the reservoirs' capacity against normal runoff. And this year, I'm sure they'll need more than that.
We're all hoping for the best. As ExSkiBum (Rich) said in the YFO thread, we'll have some impressive waterfalls to show folks in June, but even in the best possible scenario, how many of the passes will be open by then is anybody's guess.
