From 7:30 PM pst (10:30 est) press conference:

(available if you scroll down the page at ... [link to sacramento.cbslocal.com] )

*They say they can release 15,000 cfs through the power plant piping which they will be doing starting sometime tomorrow. They were only using one penstock (have 2) pipe into power plant today ... the 2nd was under maintenance. They are now working to get the 2nd penstock feed pipe open for use sometime tomorrow so additional water can go through power plant piping. (15,000 cfs vs current 5000 cfs)

*If the lake begins to become too full they WILL release water through the spillway even though they know it will cause more damage. (got the feeling they were crossing their fingers, toes, feet, arms, legs as they said that one)

*Damage is approximately 250' long ... 180' wide. Spillway chute is 3000' long and damage is in lower part.

*Have no idea yet why the failure occurred.

*Have no idea yet as to HOW TO repair the Spillway or HOW LONG it will take. Still assessing the situation (remotely) at moment but engineers won't be able to actually inspect the spillway until daylight tomorrow

*Think they can keep the spillway dry for 3 to 4 days. (based upon lake level and weather forecast of more rain) (got the feeling they didn't think they could get it repaired by then ... but that they were thinking that they would then HAVE to release water down the spillway - they did talk in passing very early about possibly getting some rip rap into the gouged out areas)

*No public safety risk

*1997 they ran 150,000 cfs over the spillway so this wasn't even close to the spillway's capacity. (Wikipedia says official max capacity is 225,000 cfs ... but 150,000 cfs may be the realistic max capacity)

*2006 they ran 60,000 cfs over the spillway which is about where it was today when the problem cropped up. 2006 was the last release of that size. Releases since then have been much smaller.