California Oroville Dam Evacuation Update: Nearly 200,000 People Evacuated After Water Barrier Threatens To Fail

Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate after erosion was detected in Northern California’s Oroville Dam this weekend.

Close to 200,000 people remained under an evacuation order in Northern California after the discovery in the emergency spillway of the country’s tallest dam, which threatened to unleash uncontrolled flood waters.

The hole in the 77-foot-tall Oroville Dam was found Sunday afternoon, after more than a month of heavy rains saw the water level of Lake Oroville, about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco surge. The emergency spillway was then called into action for the first time in almost 50 years.

Immediately, at least 188,000 people living downstream of the dam were asked to evacuate, with engineers warning it could fail within an hour. Cars were lined up bumper-to-bumper in traffic for hours after the order, NBC Bay Area reported.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said officials ordered for the water being released from the dam to be doubled to 100,000 cubic feet per second in an attempt to drain the dam more rapidly and prevent further erosion.

“There is still a lot of unknowns," Honea said at a news conference. "We need to continue to lower the lake levels and we need to give the Department of Water Resources time to fully evaluate the situation so we can make the decision to whether or not it is safe to repopulate the area.”

The lake had been lowered two feet below the emergency spillway, ABC News reported Oroville Mayor Linda Dahlmeier as saying. Still, the evacuation remained in place Monday morning. While officials initially announced they were planning to use helicopters to drop rocks into the dam’s breach, a state water official later said that no repairs had been done, reports the Associated Press.

“I’ve been in close contact with emergency personnel managing the situation in Oroville throughout the weekend, and it’s clear the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing," California Gov. Jerry Brown said. "I want to thank local and state law enforcement for leading evacuation efforts and doing their part to keep residents safe. The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to deal with this very serious situation."