Water Floods Oroville Roads as Emergency Spillway Failure Expected

Emergency evacuations were ordered for Oroville, California, on February 12, as authorities warned that they expected the Oroville Dam emergency spillway to fail.For the first time ever, water began running over the emergency spillway around 8 am, on Saturday, February 11. The dam, located on Oroville Lake, is the tallest in the United States and it was the first time the emergency spillway was used in the reservoir’s nearly 50-year history.
A 200-foot long, 30-foot-deep hole had formed in the emergency spillway, according to reports. The California Department of Water Resources announced on Sunday that they were using helicopters to drop large rocks to fill the hole.
Emergency evacuations were underway on Sunday for counties surrounding the Oroville Dam. According to California’s Department of Water Resources: “The concern is that erosion at the head of the auxiliary spillway threatens to undermine the concrete weir and allow large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville.” Credit: Luke Buell via Storyful