Today’s web bonus >> Photos: Hail and thunderstorm hits north valley. media.chicoer.
com
CROSS-COUNTRY
Panthers’
Emanuel
will run at
Chico State
Sports >> B1
Friday, April 14, 2017
CHICO
$1.00
DA rules fatal shooting justified
By Andre Byik
abyik@chicoer.com
@andrebyik on Twitter
CHICO >> The fatal shooting of
25-year-old Desmond Phillips —
a black man who lived with men-
tal illness — during an encounter
with Chico police has been ruled
justified.
Butte County District Attorney
Mike Ramsey announced Thurs-
day that two officers — Alex Fliehr
DWR
Spillway use
to resume as
repair work
continues
By Heather Hacking
hhacking@chicoer.com
@HeatherHacking on Twitter
OROVILLE >> Many questions re-
main unanswered about the sta-
tus and plans for the damaged
Oroville Dam spillways. However
a lot of work is underway, De-
partment of Water Resources of-
ficials said during a press confer-
ence Thursday in Oroville.
Even so, the water will have to
be released down the damaged
main spillway starting at 9 a.m.
Friday to make room for water
flowing into Lake Oroville from
the current storm and more on
the way, and later for snowmelt.
As of 7 p.m. Thursday, the lake
was at 864.4 feet above sea level,
which is up three feet in 24 hours.
The top of the problematic emer-
gency spillway is 901 feet.
The spillway flows will gradu-
ally be ramped up to 35,000 cu-
bic feet per second, and flows
will be shut down through the
Hyatt Powerhouse under the
dam. The spillway f lows will
continue for 10 to 14 days, ac-
cording to acting DWR Director
Bill Croyle.
Meanwhile, the DWR plans to
choose a contractor this week-
end to repair the spillway, even
though the reconstruction plans
have not yet been completed.
Also, the crew hauling away de-
bris near the spillway will con-
tinue into the near future. And to
track down the cause of the spill-
way failure, a “forensic team” ar-
rived on scene Thursday to begin
investigating.
More storms
As of Thursday, the 2016-2017
water year officially broke the re-
cord for wettest year for the North-
ern Sierra eight-station index. The
last year that was nearly as wet
was 1982-1983. For this year, so far,
89.7 inches of precipitation has fall
in the watershed, and more storms
are on the way, Croyle said. This
places the year at 207 percent of
average for this time of year.
The 10-day forecast for the
Feather River basin calls for two
more storms, as well as more snow.
“I think I have said before, we
have enough snow and enough
water,” Croyle said.
Rebuilding spillway
As soon as this weekend a con-
tractor will be hired to do repair
work to the Oroville spillway,
even though the plan for the
DAM >> PAGE 5
POLITICS
Trump’s abrupt reversals
may reflect experience
President Trump is changing
course on many key campaign
promises as he approaches
100days in office. PAGE C3
INDEX Classifieds.... D1 Comics..........C5
FACEBOOK.COM/CHICOER TWITTER.COM/CHICOER
and Jeremy Gagnebin — shot Phil-
lips because they feared for their
lives and the lives of Phillips’ fam-
ily.
The officers shot Phillips inside
his father’s apartment March 17 in
the 700 block of West Fourth Ave-
nue in Chico. Medics — and later
police — responded to the apart-
ment after Phillips’ father called
9-1-1 to report his son was having
a mental health issue.
According to the district attor-
BIDWELL MANSION
LIGHTNING HITS
Tree explodes after strike, scattering wood over 15+ cars
More than 15 cars were hit with flying wood when a tree
at Bidwell Mansion exploded after being hit by lightning
Thursday afternoon in Chico, with some of them suffering
significant damage.
H&G............... C1
ST. JOHN TOUR
Home’s
front yard
had drought
makeover
H&G >> C1
ney’s report of an investigation
conducted by the Butte County
Officer Involved Shooting/Critical
Incident Protocol Team, the ep-
isode escalated into police kick-
ing open the apartment’s front
door after Phillips’ father told
dispatchers his son was trying to
stab him.
Police initially hit Phillips with
a Taser, which brought Phillips to
the ground, according to Ramsey.
SHOOTING >> PAGE 5
PUBLIC SAFETY
Be on the lookout for
Butte’s most wanted
Local law enforcement agen-
cies are asking for the public’s
help in finding these individu-
als and tips on crime. PAGE A3
Obituaries.... C8 Opinion..........A7
AFGHANISTAN
US hits IS
with large
non-nuclear
bomb
World >> C8
PHOTOS BY BILL HUSA —
ENTERPRISE-RECORD
A tree in the parking
lots at Bidwell Mansion
and the Gateway Science
Museum was struck by
lighting during a thunder-
storm that rolled across
Chico about 3 p.m. Thurs-
day, splattering more than
15 vehicles with pieces
of wood. The storm also
brought hail and torrential
rains that flooded a num-
ber of streets in town.
BUSINESS
D Dow Jones
20,453.25 (-138.61)
D S&P 500
2328.95 (-15.98)
D Nasdaq
5805.15 (-31.01)
Sports........... B1 Volume 163, issue 154
DON’TMISSOUT:
PLANYOURFUN
See a calendar of local events
ranging from music and art
galleries to sporting events.
VISIT CALENDAR.CHICOER.COM
OR CALENDAR.OROVILLEMR.COM
Mostly sunny
H: 63 L: 42
PAGE B6
» chicoer.com
Butte County
District
Attorney
Mike Ramsey
gestures as
he talks about
the Desmond
Phillips case
during a press
conference.
BILL HUSA —
ENTERPRISE-
RECORD
WEATHER
Northern
mountains see
rainfall record
By Patrick May
Bay Area News Group
With one more soaking-wet
storm front over Wednesday
night, California woke up on
Thursday to a new all-time re-
cord for rainfall, as measured
in the all-important “North-
ern Sierra eight-station index,”
a catchment area that pretty
much defines the Golden State’s
water-level health.
“We didn’t just beat the re-
cord,” said meteorologist Craig
Shoemaker with the National
Weather Service in Sacramento.
“We shattered it.”
Weighing in at 89.7 inches, the
new record beat the old one of
88.5 set in 1982-83 by a long and
very wet shot. At a whopping 207
percent of average for this time
of year, the latest tally of the so-
called “Northern Sierra eight-
station index” showed in a nice
blue line at the top of the rain-
fall-history chart maintained by
the state’s Department of Water
Resources.
The eight sites are Mount
Shasta City, Shasta Dam, Min-
eral, Quincy, Brush Creek, Sier-
raville, Blue Canyon and Pacific
House. On average the get about
50 inches a year.
Shoemaker said “we had a
pretty heavy rainfall over the Si-
erra last night with one to three
inches. And it was widespread,
which is key when you hit all
eight of those stations.”
He said much of that hard
rain was recorded above an ele-
vation of 3,000 feet and the most
impacted area stretched from
Mount Shasta in the north all
the way down south of Highway
50 into El Dorado County.
“And we’re expecting more
rain in the coming days,” said
Shoemaker, “with a storm on
Easter Sunday and another one
in the middle of next week.”
Closer to home, there has been
34.52 inches of rain in Chico at
the Enterprise-Record weather
station since the rainfall year
started Oct. 1. Average for this
time of year is 23.64 inches.
The record for Chico, accord-
ing to E-R files, is 50.41 inches
in the 1982-83 rainfall year. That
was when July 1-June 30 was
considered the rainfall year.
This year Oroville has seen
31.54 inches; Paradise, 81.08
inches.
DWR’s five-station San Joa-
quin index was 68.2 inches, on
pace with the 1982-83 record
of 77.4 inches and 194 percent
of the average by today’s date.
The annual average there is 40.8
RAIN >> PAGE 3
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