Nearly 200,000 residents near the damaged dam were forced to leave their homes in rush, causing mass chaos and heavy traffic. They still have not received a permit to return home and are not likely to until the dam is fully repaired before new storms hit. Many evacuees have to stay at several shelters, sleeping on narrow cots, as most hotels in the area are at full capacity.
Following a lengthy drought, heavy rainfall and snow caused water levels in one of the largest man-made lakes in the United States, Lake Oroville, to rise. Local authorities started releasing water down the regular spillway, which was damaged by a sinkhole and has stopped drainage of the lake. Water began pouring into the emergency spillway, which hasn't been used in almost half a century and failed to control the flooding.
However, if the spillways totally failed, billions of gallons of water would have flowed from the lake and flooded three counties.
