Oroville - Residents below the tallest dam in the
United States near Oroville in Northern California were ordered
to evacuate immediately on Sunday after authorities said an
auxiliary spillway was in danger of imminent collapse.
"Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and
areas downstream is ordered," the Butte County Sheriff said in a
statement posted on social media. "This is NOT A Drill. This is NOT A Drill. This is NOT A Drill."
The California Department of Water Resources said on
Twitter said at about 4:30 p.m. PST that the spillway was
"predicted to fail within the next hour."
Oroville dam spillway, the moment the evacuation sounds and 100 000 cf/s is let out pic.twitter.com/wlPlTwIyFR
— pseudojd (@pseudojd) February 13, 2017
State authorities and engineers on Thursday began carefully
releasing water from the Lake Oroville Dam about 105
km north of Sacramento after noticing that large chunks of
concrete were missing from a spillway.
The earthfill dam is just upstream and to the east of
Oroville, a city of more than 16 260 people.
At 230m high, the structure, built between
1962 and 1968, is the tallest dam in the United States, besting
the famed Hoover Dam by more than 12 m.