The good news is that it looks like the recent rain in Northern and Central California is putting a dent in and possibly erasing a multiyear drought. The bad news is, with the amount of rain that’s occurred, a potentially catastrophic failure of the emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam system has developed.
As the emergency dispatch service provider for the Gold Country Regional Chapter of the American Red Cross, Direct Line has taken hundreds of calls in an effort to facilitate the deployment of volunteers needed to support evacuation efforts for the Oroville Dam crisis. Due to mandated evacuation, residents had to quickly pack up their belongings and move to a shelter or alternate housing. For a number of those displaced with questions of where to go or what do to there was only one organization to call for help, the American Red Cross.
Our professionally certified Call Agents were ready to assist them with a calming voice while providing them with the necessary emergency support needed.
Since it’s difficult to predict disasters of this magnitude, now is a good time to review your disaster preparedness plan for your business. Do you have a plan if your office has been physically affected by an event or your employees can’t make it in?. As an answering service that provides support to many communities, businesses and agencies nationwide, we have to be able to take calls no matter what, especially when you can’t. Take a look at our comprehensive business continuity plan.
The Gold Country Region of The American Red Cross serves more than 4.4 million people across 24 counties.
Volunteers, staff and all of us here at Direct Line are prepared to respond 24/7 to ensure that Red Cross services are provided when and where they are needed.
Click on the following link find out how to support the American Red Cross.
Wikipedia provides some interesting facts about The Oroville Dam.
The Oroville Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam built on the Feather River in Northern California. It’s 770 feet high and is the tallest dam in the U.S. that facilitates water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control. The dam impounds Lake Oroville, which is the second largest man-made lake in the state of California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre-feet. It is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley.
