While everyone’s home on a Sunday night enjoying the last of the weekend, please keep the people of Oroville, California in your prayers. Thousands of people have been told to leave their homes tonight because of the danger of a flood caused by a failing dam…Unreal!
LIVE FEED:
OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) – Thousands of northern Californians were told to leave their homes Sunday evening, as an emergency spillway in the country’s tallest dam was in danger of failing and unleashing uncontrolled flood waters on towns below
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.
LIVE FEED:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF3j82YEsTo
People in downstream areas need to leave the area immediately, the department said.
Officials earlier Sunday stressed the dam 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.
Video of Oroville Dam in California:
VIDEO: Thousands forced to leave homes near Oroville Dam in California – https://t.co/N6xQvY620B pic.twitter.com/bSYLp9DXYQ
— KCTV5 News (@KCTV5) February 13, 2017
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