Nearly 200,000 people remained under evacuation orders Monday as California authorities try to fix erosion of the emergency spillway at the nation's tallest dam that could unleash uncontrolled flood waters if it fails.About 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, Lake Oroville - one of California's largest man-made lakes - had water levels so high that an emergency spillway was used Saturday for the first time in almost 50 years.The evacuation was ordered Sunday afternoon after engineers spotted a hole on the concrete lip of the secondary spillway for the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam and told authorities that it could fail within the hour."I'm just shocked," said Greg Levias, who was evacuating with his wife, Kaysi, two boys and a dog.What they couldn't fit in their trunk they piled as high as they could in their downstairs Yuba City apartment and joined the line of traffic attempting to leave the city where they had moved just three weeks ago.Panicked and angry residents sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic hours after the evacuation order was given.Raj Gill was managing a Shell station where anxious motorists got gas and snacks while waiting for gridlocked traffic to clear. His boss told him to close the station and flee himself, but he stayed open to feed a steady line of customers."You can't even move," he said. "I'm trying to get out of here too. I'm worried about the flooding. I've seen the pictures - that's a lot of water."A Red Cross spokeswoman said more than 500 people were at an evacuation center in Chino, California. The shelter had run out of blankets and cots, and a semi-tractor trailer with 1,000 more cots was stuck in the gridlock of traffic fleeing the potential flooding, said Red Cross shelter manager Pam Deditch.A California Highway Patrol spokesman said they would have two planes out Monday to help with traffic control as well as search and rescue.State Fire and Rescue Chief Kim Zagaris said at least 250 law enforcement officers from throughout the state are in the area or on their way to help with the evacuation.Late Sunday, officials said the evacuation orders remained in place despite the fact water was no longer spilling over the eroded area."There is still a lot of unknowns," Butte County Sheriff Kory 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."About 188,000 residents of Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties were ordered to evacuate.Acting Director Department of Water Resources Bill Croyle said officials will be able to assess the damage to the emergency spillway now that the lake levels have been lowered.The erosion at the head of the emergency spillway threatens to undermine the concrete weir and allow large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville. Those potential flows could overwhelm the Feather River and other downstream waterways, channels and levees and flood towns in three counties.Oroville Lake levels had decreased by Sunday night as they let water flow from its heavily damaged main spillway.Croyle said the department will continue releasing as much as 100,000 cubic feet per second from the main spillway to try and reduce the dam's level by 50 feet ahead of storms forecast to reach the area Wednesday.Department engineer and spokesman Kevin Dossey told the Sacramento Bee the emergency spillway was rated to handle 250,000 cubic feet per second, but it began to show weakness Sunday after flows peaked at 12,600 cubic feet per second.Honea said there was a plan to plug the hole by using helicopters to drop rocks into the crevasse. But Croyle said at that no repair work was done after officials looked at the flow and available resources.Gov. Jerry Brown late Sunday issued an emergency order to fortify authorities' response to the emergency at the dam and help with evacuations.Adjutant General David S. Baldwin of the California National Guard said at a news conference late Sunday that eight helicopters will be available Monday to assist with emergency spillway reconstruction.The California National Guard put out a notification to all 23,000 soldiers and airmen to be ready to deploy if needed, he said. Baldwin says an alert for the entire California National Guard hadn't been issued since the 1992 riots.Earlier Sunday, officials stressed the Oroville Dam itself was structurally sound.Unexpected erosion chewed through the main spillway during heavy rain earlier this week, sending chunks of concrete flying and creating a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole that continues growing. Engineers don't know what caused the cave-in, but Chris Orrock, a Department of Water Resources spokesman, said it appears the dam's main spillway has stopped crumbling even though it's being used for water releases.The lake is a central piece of California's government-run water delivery network, supplying water for agriculture in the Central Valley and residents and businesses in Southern California.</s>This post is up-to-date as of 11:50CT

While the potential of the Oroville Dam collapsing has slightly diminished, if the dam fails as expected it could send an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville to nearby cities. Evacuations began Sunday night as Oroville officials warned of the potential collapse and flooding of the entire city within an hour. Among the counties listed for evacuations are Butte, Sutter and Yuba. Most residents were only given minutes to gather their belongings and evacuate. The area had been in drought for a long time until this year when heavy rain and snow bombarded the state. In Oroville, the average annual rainfall is about 31 inches, but has already seen 25 inches of rain as of Saturday, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

According to California’s Department of Water Resources, the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway that’s eroding had never been used in the 48 years that the dam has existed. The DWR instructed Oroville residents to head north, toward Chico. Crews have been working tirelessly loading up dozens of bags of rocks for helicopters to drop on dam’s auxiliary spillway. The DWR is hoping to bring the water level down before another expected storm on Wednesday hits.</s>An immediate evacuation from the lower levels of Oroville and other areas have been issued due to a "hazardous situation" developing with the dam's spillway.

The Butte County Sheriff's Department said an eroding hole was found in the auxiliary spillway on Sunday afternoon. The department said after working with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), evacuations were ordered.

"We had to make a critical and difficult decision to initiate evacuation of the Oroville area," the department said.

The DWR increased the water flowing out of the dam after it reached capacity in early February. To try shore up the water and prevent anymore on-site erosions on the emergency spillway, the DWR plans to drop rocks or boulders.

A California water official says 100,000 cubic feet of water per second continued to flow down the Orville Dam's main spillway.

 

 Department of Water Resources Acting Director Bill Croyle said at a news conference late Sunday that the plan is to continue withdrawing that amount of water for as long as possible.

 

 Croyle says a key goal is to reduce the dam's level ahead of upcoming storms forecast to reach the area Wednesday.

 

 Water levels at Lake Orville rose so high that an emergency spillway was used Saturday for the first time in almost 50 years. Officials noticed erosion on the emergency spillway on Sunday.

 

 Croyle says officials have been unable to access the erosion scar but will be able to analyze the damage better now that water is below its level.

According to the National Weather Service, the areas impacted are Oroville, Palermo, Gridley, Thermalito, South Oroville, Oroville Dam, Oroville East and Wyandotte.

Residents evacuated can shelter at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico.

The City of Marysville and Yuba City has also been encouraged to evacuate immediately.

A Northern California sheriff says evacuation orders affecting 188,000 people will stand until there is more information on the condition of the nation's tallest dam's emergency spillway.

For evacuation information, residents in Butte County can call 211 from any landline or cell phone. Yuba or Sutter County residents can call 1-866-916-3566.

With the emergency evacuation orders in place due to the spillways, there are local schools that will be closed on Monday.

This is a developing story. Refresh for more details as they come in.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>OROVILLE, Calif. — Officials have ordered residents near one of the nation’s biggest dams to evacuate the area, saying a “hazardous situation is developing” after an emergency spillway severely eroded.

The emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam in Northern California could fail within an hour unleashing uncontrolled flood waters from Lake Oroville, the California Department of Water Resources said on Sunday afternoon.

People in downstream areas need to leave the area immediately, the department said.

Residents of Oroville, a town of 16,000 people, should head north toward Chico, and other cities should follow orders from their local law enforcement agencies, the Butte County Sheriff’s office said.

Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the dam on Saturday after heavy rainfall damaged the main spillway.

Unexpected erosion chewed through the main spillway earlier this week, sending chunks of concrete flying and creating a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole that continues growing. Engineers don’t know what caused the cave-in, but Chris Orrock, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources, said it appears the dam’s main spillway has stopped crumbling even though it’s being used for water releases.

About 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, Lake Oroville is one of California’s largest man-made lakes, and the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam is the nation’s tallest. The lake is a central piece of California’s government-run water delivery network, supplying water for agriculture in the Central Valley and residents and businesses in Southern California.</s>The combined population of the areas under evacuation would appear to reach nearly 100,000 people. ​The California Department of Water Resources is ordering residents to evacuate northward.

Social media accounts report traffic jams as people try to get out of harm's way.

On Tuesday, a huge hole formed in the spillway of the dam, which officials fear will grow until it hits bedrock. The dam's emergency spillway was then put into use, but severe erosion meant that officials are not sure it will be able to hold. Though officials described the situation as stable as recently as this morning, they are now urging residents in low-lying areas to leave, BNO News reports.

The dam is the nation's tallest, and California's second largest reservoir.

Officials had been expecting a problem for days, but had hoped to avoid using the emergency spillway, the Chicago Tribune reported yesterday. This is the first time in the dam's nearly 50-year history that the emergency spillway has been used.

​Water began flowing over the emergency spillway — basically a route quickly cleared of brush to allow water to be released in a somewhat controlled fashion — for the first time in the dam's history on Saturday. The fear is that erosion in the emergency spillway could cause an uncontrolled flow of water.</s>OROVILLE, Calif. – Some 188,000 people were ordered or urged to evacuate in Northern California after authorities warned an emergency spillway in the country’s tallest dam was in danger of failing Sunday and unleashing uncontrolled flood waters on towns below.

Officials warned residents that the spillway could fail within an hour.

But in a late-night news conference, authorities said there was no more water going over the emergency spillway. The concern, they said, was that a 30-foot deep wall of water would be unleased if the emergency spillway failed.

There were still many unknowns, authorities said.

Nonetheless, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the evacuation calls would stand until more information is analyzed.

The California Department of Water Resources said it was releasing 100,000 cubic feet of water per second from the main, heavily damaged spillway in an attempt to drain the lake enough to have it drop 50 feet.

Officials say Oroville Lake levels had decreased by Sunday night.

About 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, Lake Oroville is one of California’s largest man-made lakes, and the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam is the nation’s tallest.

Over five hours after the evacuations were called for, hundreds of cars carrying panicked and angry people were sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

“The police came and told us to evacuate,” said Kaysi Levias who was with her husband, Greg, at a gas station as they attempted to flee.

“Not giving us more warning,” said Kaysi, finishing his sentence.

“We’ve never been through this before,” said Kaysi Levias. “We have two boys and our dog. All the stuff we could fit in the trunk – clothes and blankets.”

What they couldn’t fit they piled as high as they could in their downstairs Yuba City apartment and joined the line of traffic attempting to leave the city where they had moved just three weeks ago.

The cities of Oroville, Gridley, Live Oak, Marysville, Wheat land, Yuba City, Plumas Lake, and Olivehurst were all under evacuation calls

They went out around 4 p.m. after engineers spotted a hole that was eroding back toward the top of the spillway.

The erosion at the head of the emergency spillway threatened to undermine the concrete weir and enable large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville, the California Department of Water Resources said. Those potential flows could overwhelm the Feather River and other downstream waterways, channels and levees.

Sheriff Honea said engineers with the Department of Water Resources informed him shortly after 6 p.m. that the erosion on the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam was not advancing as fast as they thought.

“Unfortunately, they couldn’t advise me or tell me specifically how much time that would take so we had to make the very difficult and critical decision to initiate the evacuation of the Orville area and all locations south of that,” he said. “We needed to get people moving quickly to save lives if the worst case scenario came into fruition.”

Honea said the plan was to plug the hole by using helicopters to drop rocks into the crevasse.

Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall. Officials earlier Sunday stressed the dam itself was structurally sound and said there was no threat to the public.

Residents of Oroville, a town of 16,000 people, should head north toward Chico, and other cities should follow orders from their local law enforcement agencies, the Butte County Sheriff’s office said.

The Yuba County Office of Emergency Services asked residents in the valley floor, including Marysville, a city of 12,000 people, to evacuate and take routes to the east, south, or west and avoid traveling north toward Oroville.

Department engineer and spokesman Kevin Dossey told the Sacramento Bee the emergency spillway was rated to handle 250,000 cubic feet per second, but it began to show weakness Sunday at a small fraction of that. Flows through the spillway peaked at 12,600 cubic feet per second at 1 a.m. Sunday and were down to 8,000 cubic feet per second by midday.

Unexpected erosion chewed through the main spillway during heavy rain earlier this week, sending chunks of concrete flying and creating a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole that continues growing. Engineers don’t know what caused the cave-in, but Chris Orrock, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources, said it appears the dam’s main spillway has stopped crumbling even though it’s being used for water releases.

The lake is a central piece of California’s government-run water delivery network, supplying water for agriculture in the Central Valley and residents and businesses in Southern California.</s>OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Water levels dropped Monday at California’s Lake Oroville, stopping water from spilling over a massive dam’s potentially hazardous emergency spillway after authorities ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people from towns lying below the lake.

California Department of Water Resources officials are waiting for the light of dawn to inspect an erosion scar on the spillway at the Oroville Dam, the nation’s largest.

The evacuations for people living below the lake were ordered Sunday after authorities warned that failure of the emergency spillway could send a 30-foot wall of water into the communities.

The lake that also serves as a reservoir has swelled significantly in recent weeks because California has been hit by a series of storms that have dumped rain and snow across the state, particularly in northern California where the lake lies about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco.

The threat appeared to ease somewhat Monday, which officials saying water flows into the lake stood at about 45,000 cubic feet per second with outflows at 100,000 cubic feet per second.

Lake Oroville is one of California’s largest man-made lakes and had water levels so high on Saturday that its emergency spillway was used for the first time since it was built nearly 50 years ago.

Sunday afternoon’s evacuation order came after engineers spotted a hole on the concrete lip of the secondary spillway for the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam and told authorities that it could fail within the hour.

The sudden evacuation panicked residents, who scrambled to get their belongings into cars and then grew angry as they sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic hours after the evacuation order was given.

Kaysi and Greg Levias packed everything they could into their car from their Yuba City apartment and piled everything they were leaving behind as high as possible before leaving the city they

“We’ve never been through this before,” said Kaysi Levias. “We have two boys and our dog. All the stuff we could fit in the trunk — clothes and blankets.”moved to just three weeks ago.</s>(CNN) -- "This is NOT a drill." The Butte County Sheriff's Office repeated the warning three times, telling residents near California's Oroville Dam to evacuate before potential disaster strikes.

The dam's emergency spillway could be on the verge of failing due to erosion, the sheriff's office said in a statement. The structure was expected to give way by 6 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET).

A spillway controls the flow of water from the lake or river being dammed to the area downstream. It also ensures, during times of high water levels, that the water does not rush over the top of the dam or damage the dam.

"Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville," a statement on Facebook said. "This is an evacuation order. Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered."

At 770 feet, Oroville Dam is the country's tallest. In addition to flood control, it also serves to provide drinking water and generate hydroelectric power.

In an effort to mitigate the situation, the California Department of Water Resources is increasing water releases from the main spillway to 100,000 cubic feet per second in an effort to lessen the amount of water traveling down the emergency spillway, the sheriff's office said.

The DWR instructed Oroville residents to head north, toward Chico.

The evacuation order also includes "all Yuba County on the valley floor" and the city of Marysville, authorities said.

"Take only routes to the east, south, or west. DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE!!!!!" the Yuba County Office of Emergency Services warned residents.

Evacuation shelters have been set up at fairgrounds in Chico and Colusa, CNN affiliate KCRA reported. A California Office of Emergency Services spokesperson told the station that it could be "potentially catastrophic" if the emergency spillway fails.

Marysville is about 40 miles north of Sacramento, Oroville about 70 miles.

The Sacramento Fire Department warned residents that the spillway failure could have effects, including flash flooding, downstream in Sacramento.</s>OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Nearly 200,000 people remained under evacuation orders Monday as California authorities try to fix erosion of the emergency spillway at the nation’s tallest dam that could unleash uncontrolled flood waters if it fails.

About 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, Lake Oroville — one of California’s largest man-made lakes — had water levels so high that an emergency spillway was used Saturday for the first time in almost 50 years.

The evacuation was ordered Sunday afternoon after engineers spotted a hole on the concrete lip of the secondary spillway for the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam and told authorities that it could fail within the hour.

“I’m just shocked,” said Greg Levias, who was evacuating with his wife, Kaysi.

“We have two boys and our dog,” said Kaysi Levias. “All the stuff we could fit in the trunk — clothes and blankets.”

What they couldn’t fit they piled as high as they could in their downstairs Yuba City apartment and joined the line of traffic attempting to leave the city where they had moved just three weeks ago.

Panicked and angry residents sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic hours after the evacuation order was given.

Raj Gill was managing a Shell station where anxious motorists got gas and snacks while waiting for gridlocked traffic to clear. His boss told him to close the station and flee himself, but he stayed open to feed a steady line of customers.

“You can’t even move,” he said. “I’m trying to get out of here too. I’m worried about the flooding. I’ve seen the pictures — that’s a lot of water.”

State Fire and Rescue Chief Kim Zagaris said at least 250 law enforcement officers from throughout the state are in the area or on their way to help with the evacuation.

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said they would have two planes out Monday to help with traffic control as well as search and rescue.

Late Sunday, officials said the evacuation orders remained in place despite the fact water was no longer spilling over the eroded area.

“There is still a lot of unknowns,” Butte County Sheriff Kory 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.”

About 188,000 residents of Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties were ordered to evacuate.

Acting Director Department of Water Resources Bill Croyle said officials will be able to assess the damage to the emergency spillway now that the lake levels have been lowered.

The erosion at the head of the emergency spillway threatens to undermine the concrete weir and allow large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville. Those potential flows could overwhelm the Feather River and other downstream waterways, channels and levees and flood towns in three counties.

Oroville Lake levels had decreased by Sunday night as they let water flow from its heavily damaged main spillway.

Croyle said the department will continue releasing as much as 100,000 cubic feet per second from the main spillway to try and reduce the dam’s level by 50 feet ahead of storms forecast to reach the area Wednesday.

Department engineer and spokesman Kevin Dossey told the Sacramento Bee the emergency spillway was rated to handle 250,000 cubic feet per second, but it began to show weakness Sunday after flows peaked at 12,600 cubic feet per second.

Honea said there was a plan to plug the hole by using helicopters to drop rocks into the crevasse. But Croyle said at that no repair work was done after officials looked at the flow and available resources.

Gov. Jerry Brown late Sunday issued an emergency order to fortify authorities’ response to the emergency at the dam and help with evacuations.

Adjutant General David S. Baldwin of the California National Guard said at a news conference late Sunday that eight helicopters will be available Monday to assist with emergency spillway reconstruction.

The California National Guard put out a notification to all 23,000 soldiers and airmen to be ready to deploy if needed, he said. Baldwin says an alert for the entire California National Guard hadn’t been issued since the 1992 riots.

Earlier Sunday, officials stressed the Oroville Dam itself was structurally sound.

Unexpected erosion chewed through the main spillway during heavy rain earlier this week, sending chunks of concrete flying and creating a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole that continues growing. Engineers don’t know what caused the cave-in, but Chris Orrock, a Department of Water Resources spokesman, said it appears the dam’s main spillway has stopped crumbling even though it’s being used for water releases.

The lake is a central piece of California’s government-run water delivery network, supplying water for agriculture in the Central Valley and residents and businesses in Southern California.</s>Authorities were concerned that the emergency spillway on America's tallest dam could fail.

More than 130,000 people have been told to evacuate over concerns that the emergency spillway on America's tallest dam could fail.

Residents living in cities near California's Oroville Dam were told to leave their homes as concerned officials warned that the spillway could collapse imminently.

"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."

The California Department of Water Resources said on Twitter that the spillway next to the dam was "predicted to fail within the next hour," but hours later the situation appeared less dire as the spillway remained standing.

The Water Resources department said crews using helicopters would drop rocks to fill a gouge in the spillway.

Authorities were also releasing water to lower the lake's level after weeks of heavy rain.
The California Department of Water Resources orders residents near Oroville Dam to evacuate, including low-lying levels of Oroville, after an emergency spillway severely eroded.