Nearly 200,000 people, who evacuated Sunday over fears that a damaged spillway at Lake Oroville could fail and unleash a wall of water, have to stay away indefinitely while officials race to repair it before more rains arrive Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
A flash flood warning is in effect Tuesday after the spillway — which lets excess water out when the level gets too high — suffered massive damage over the weekend, according to CNN.
If the spillway fails, it could flood communities downstream with what one official warned could be a "30-foot wall of water."
|Nation's tallest dam
The Gold Rush town of Oroville, in the Sierra Nevada foothills some 70 miles northeast of Sacramento, is nestled near the foot of the dam, which was completed in 1968 and at 770 feet is the nation's tallest.
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Jayleen R. Heft
Jayleen Heft is the digital content editor for PropertyCasualty360.com. Contact her at [email protected].
