Thousands evacuated as water released from dam

CORONA, Calif. - Authorities released a fierce, brown river of water from a Riverside County dam and evacuated 2,300 people from its path Friday after a temporary earthen barrier at the site began seeping water.

The mandatory evacuation was called off in the late afternoon but police urged residents to voluntarily stay away until Monday as a precaution.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unleashed more than 10,000 cubic feet of water per second to relieve pressure on the earthen dam 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles after more water than usual began pushing through the dirt of a temporary coffer dam that is protecting workers who are extending and raising the dam.

"That's like a swimming pool every second," Corona Mayor Darrell Talbert said.

The water gushed into the Santa Ana River, whose banks were deep enough to handle the flow without flooding, said Lt. Col. John Guenther, deputy commander of the corps' Los Angeles district.

However, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for the length of the Santa Ana River from the dam in western Riverside County to the river's mouth in Newport Beach. That was canceled in the late afternoon because seepage from the dam no longer was increasing.

The seepage had been estimated at more than 10 gallons per minute. But the temporary dam was intact and so was the original dam, Guenther said.

"Right now, there is no imminent danger," he said.

Crews were working to shore up the coffer dam. The work and the water released could continue through Sunday, Guenther said.

Nearly 1,000 homes in town and about 100 people from a recreational vehicle park in adjoining Yorba Linda in Orange County were evacuated, forming a slow caravan of cars that snaked through the neighborhoods. Residents later were told they might be allowed back by afternoon.

At an evacuation center in the high school gymnasium, Corona officials defended their decision to evacuate 330 mobile homes and 508 other homes in town.

Corona Police Chief Richard Gonzales said seepage at the base of the dam had increased fivefold after it was detected Thursday evening.

"I'm sorry if we woke you up, I'm sorry if we got you out of your home. ... I wasn't gonna lose any of you, period," he said to a round of applause.

"We're here to tell you the threat was real, the danger was real and we did the right thing," Talbert said.