Authorities
ordered the evacuation of several northern California towns Sunday
evening as a rapidly eroding section of a dam appeared on the verge
of collapse.
"Immediate
evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is
ordered," the Butte County sheriff's office posted on Facebook.
"Operation
of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to
a failure of the structure. Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure
will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake
Oroville."
The evacuation warning was "NOT a drill," the sheriff's office added.
Anticipating
the failure of the dam's auxiliary spillway, officials in the northern
California town frantically attempted to drain water from the main
spillway, at a clip of 100,000 cubic feet per second, according to the Sacramento Bee. Helicopters dropped sand and rocks into a sinkhole in the spillway to stem the erosion.
“It's
uncontrolled. It's uncontrolled," Department of Water
Resources spokesman Chris Orrock said, when asked how much water could
be released should the spillway fail.
Later Sunday evening, officials said the threat of collapse due to erosion had diminished, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Water levels fell to a point at which little or no water flowed out of
the emergency spillway, which Orrock said was the main factor in its
erosion.
An
evacuation center was set up in Chico, a nearby town north of
Oroville, the sheriff's office said on Twitter. Traffic heading out of
Oroville appeared to slow to a crawl as thousands of residents attempted
to flee. Residents of seven towns in neighboring Yuba and Sutter
counties were also instructed to evacuate.
Unexpected erosion this week resulted in a massive sinkhole
forming in the dam's main spillway, a mile-long concrete gutter that
controls the flow of excess water. Officials initially shut off the flow
of water down the spillway, but heavy rainfall on Saturday caused the
dam to overflow for the first time in its 49-year history, according to The Associated Press.
The
overflow triggered the first-ever use of the dam's emergency spillway,
which itself began showing signs of damage, causing officials to issue
the evacuation warnings.
The
deterioration was severe and rapid. Just four hours before the
evacuation warnings, around midday Sunday, another Department of Water
Resources spokesman had said he didn't anticipate the failure of the
spillways. The dam itself is structurally sound, the spokesman had
added.
At
770 feet, Oroville Dam is the tallest dam in the United States. It
could take up to $200 million to repair the damaged spillway, according to the Los Angeles Times.