 Sean Boyd here in the Cal OES newsroom, coming up next in another OES News in-depth. What are the priorities for unified command and crews at the Oroville Dam? You might be surprised at how far they've come. And we follow the flood fighters. As they patrol levees along the San Joaquin River, you'll see how they drive a stake through the heart of problem spots. That's all coming up right now. Hi, I'm Sean Boyd. It's been a fast two weeks since the residents of Oroville and communities downstream along the Feather River were all evacuated. The fear was aggressive erosion of the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam was going to cause massive flooding. Since then, local, state, federal and non-governmental agencies all teamed together to form what's called a unified command. And to say they're getting the job done just might be an understatement. Here's the latest on the efforts to shore up the spillway, ready the river and how the community is showing their gratitude with punny signs. Yeah, I said punny. It's been more than a week since the threat of flooding forced the evacuation of parts of Oroville and communities downstream along the Feather River. A week ago Sunday, when we had all the erosion right below our emergency spillway, it was terrifying. It was terrifying to see that. Since then, a lot of work has been accomplished. Deep holes in the emergency spillway caused by erosion are well on their way to being filled with rock and concrete. There's a nearly non-stop convoy of trucks with boulders on their backs. They make their way to the emergency spillway, dump their load, then go back for more. And where the trucks can't reach, helicopters can. Lake Oroville levels are now down nearly 50 feet. That's worth a deep sigh. I feel a little relieved. Pet Whitlock is the operations chief here at the Incident Command Post. He's got his finger on the pulse of the Oroville operation, and he knows there's a lot of work yet to be done. Reinforcement of the emergency spillway needs completion. We don't plan on using that again, but if something astronomical happens with some gigantic weather storm, we want that to be ready. And they need to get the hide power plant back in operation. But to do that, they must first excavate all that debris that's settled at the foot of the gated spillway. That's where these come in. Crews are building barges, big enough to hold heavy equipment that'll be used to dredge the diversion pool. But that can't happen until they're able to bring the gated spillway to what they're calling a zero-flow. That means no water releases. That'll also give engineers time to inspect the damage to the spillway. They expect that to happen next week. There's activities underway, looking at different things we could do to the spillway to make it a little more reliable, even in its condition, to pass some flows through it. So to give you some context and perspective, I'm here at the bottom of the dam. And what's going on behind the camera is where all of the action is taking place to get those barges and equipment ready for that all-important dredging operation. Other operations resumed after inclement weather grounded all helicopters. This one is part of PG&E's effort to relocate power lines and towers that are in the path of the emergency spillway and threatened by erosion. PG&E crews have been working on these towers to disassemble them piece by piece so they can safely be carried away by a helicopter. They're unbolting the pieces of the lattice steel tower bit by bit, and then once it's disconnected, the helicopter will take it away. Working at a furious pace to gain lost ground, Paul Moreno expects they will complete this work and have the new lines in service this week. This is a massive, complex operation. Working closely with our partners and with Unified Command, with the sheriff and Cal Fire, you know, they all, we all prop each other up, you know, so it's great having that Unified Command to help us make all the right decisions. And there's no doubt that Unified Command's spirits have been lifted by the signs of a supportive community. In fact, they've posted pictures of them in their briefing tent, words of kindness making them smile here or on the road for every one of these rock stars to see, pun intended. We feel grateful. So that, you know, that it's a good feeling just to see the public support just there. Reporting for Cal OES News in-depth, I'm Sean Boyd in Oroville. From the spillway up north to the levees south along the San Joaquin River, there's a group of dedicated flood fighters whose mission is to drive a stake into the hearts of problems, problems before they grow into monstrous disasters. Cal OES photojournalist John Laramore caught up with them and tells their story in their own words. We see if we can find it. There's been a couple of groups have come out here. It was reported last night. You'll see the water because usually there'll be some seepage like this on the ground and you'll see the water kind of bubbling up a little bit and rippling out. I found one the other day that I heard it. I was standing on the crown and it was, it got quiet for a moment and you could actually hear it girdling. Oftentimes it'll be, the material that's moving out will be a little bit different color than everything else. So they're kind of our eyes and ears on site, our strike team so to speak. I call them our Marine Corps of the department in terms of flood response. And that's a problem, huh? These beavers and beavers especially because they make big holes and they, they tend to go in and make a dam. We've activated the flood center for 24-hour operations now. So it's all about communication, coordination. So when we hear of an issue, then we provide and coordinate any type of resources that may be necessary on site. You could have what we call a boil on the land side, which is actually water passing through the levee. The response to that may be a sandbag ring around it to raise the elevation, ensure that no material is passing through with the water itself. But I never want to disregard anything off-hand and I've got to give it a good look. Well that's it for this edition of Cal OES News in-depth for the latest information on all storm-related response and recovery efforts as well as other preparedness information and tips. Be sure to check out caloes.ca.gov and oesnews.com. For OES News, I'm Sean Boyd.