priority : you a vietnam veteran whose war medals were stolen from his home got them back. he was evacuated after concerns over the spillway. thieves took his medals including a purple heart. they were returned and he was overjoyed. it was like a extremely good christmas and we were overwhelmed at the effort. shannon: police arrested three suspects in that theft. how dare you take the medals. they can t be worth much on the open market. good news he got them back. later tonight, eight hours from now start the clocks. here comes the countdown. and martha is going to host that in jacksonville, florida.
pictures show just how damaged that spillway is. the problem here isn t just this storm. it s the consistent rain they have been getting in northern california. they won t get a break yet. more heavy rain and high winds on the way tonight. david? neal karlinsky with us. neal, thank you. let s get to our meteorologist, ginger zee tracking it for us tonight in new york. ginger? reporter: david, the flash flood and wind threat is ongoing in california. especially northern california. let me take you through the timing. you can see the low in the pacific ocean as it hits the coast tomorrow morning. you see along the california and oregon state line. heavy mountain snow on the order of 80 plus inches by the time this is done, and gusts could reach 50 to 60 miles per hour, and it s not just in the mountain passes. san francisco above 50-mile-per-hour gusts. you will definitely see damage potential there. feeling like spring east of the rockies, and it will keep feeling that way, even t
right now, which is why they re trying lower the level of the river behind the dam. we re going to push in and give you a closer look. the big plume is off the main spillway. all the water coming out of the dam, it s supposed to go straight down, it s not, it s hitting a damaged area and moving its way around. that s a damaged area. in addition to that, the merge spillway of so much concern is also damaged. however, they can t stop the water from coming out because of the rain that s coming right now. it s going to be raining from tonight, tomorrow, possibly into wednesday, up to 10 inches, what they need to do on the other side of that dam is lower the level of the reservoir, lake oroville, it s a delicate balance trying to empty out water as it s running over the damaged areas and lowering the water level of the lake and had to increase the output baufdz the rain, because it s starting. what they re trying to do is protect the communities below. you mentioned that 188,000
could lower the level of the lake to allow for more room for this storm that is supposed to bring up to 10 inches of fresh rainwater in addition to all of the runoff that is supposed to come with the melting snow. then you move over here a little bit, you can see dam, and we have seen crews going up and down all weekend and of course life on television now, there are no people, but they ve been very busy because on the other side of the road is the cement emergency spill that they are trying to shore up. let me show you some video here that we have given to us by the water authority that shows some of the work. you will see this great area. what that is is a cement that they ve been dropping into the spillway all week long, trying to shore it up because the erosion was so bad that it prompted the mass evacuation last sunday of 188,000 people. that work is continuing but only on the ground. a lot of the ways they were able to get this worked on was through boulders they were dropping an
reporter: it s raining again right now, which is why they re trying lower the level of the river behind the dam. we re going to push in and give you a closer look. the big plume is off the main spillway. all the water coming out of the dam, it s supposed to go straight down, it s not, it s hitting a damaged area and moving its way around. that s a damaged area. in addition to that, the merge spillway of so much concern is also damaged. however, they can t stop the water from coming out because of the rain that s coming right now. it s going to be raining from tonight, tomorrow, possibly into wednesday, up to 10 inches, what they need to do on the other side of that dam is lower the level of the reservoir, lake oroville, it s a delicate balance trying to empty out water as it s running over the damaged areas and lowering the water level of the lake and had to increase the output baufdz the rain, because it s starting. what they re trying to do is protect the communities below. you men