Drone used at possible dam breech near Marysville, CA.

[GMack]

Seems they evacuated 160,000 downstream of the Lake Oroville dam above Sacramento, CA. They used a drone to show where the water is over the spillway by two inches and might collapse hence the cities evacuation.

Watch: Drone flies over auxiliary spillway at Lake Oroville

 

[Unmannedsky]

Thanks for this link. I put it in a quick blog post on this here. Also featured a non-drone video showing the emergency spillway release. WOAH.

 

[BigAl07]

That's impressive. Imagine being the lucky operator to capture that footage.

Here's to hoping and praying she does NOT give way~

 

[Unmannedsky]

Dug around a bit. Turns out the operator was the CA Dept of Water Resources. Good thing they didn't use it for inspection prior to the flood... Might have saved some hassle...

 

[Bendix]

From what I've read, there was no way to predict the spillway would crumble like it did from simple visual observation. The ground underneath it gave way under load and caused the concrete to break up and collapse into the breach. Partly due to ineffective inspections, but visual inspection from the air wouldn't reveal any problems.

 

[Unmannedsky]

Probably right. At least thats what the say now! Seems like they could have done something to keep things from getting this desperate. Makes me wonder how much other infrastructure is a facade...

 

[JesterPhotog]

I wonder if the flight was done prior to the TFR being enacted.