This Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, aerial photo released by the California Department of Water Resources shows the damaged spillway with eroded hillside in Oroville, Calif. Water will continue to flow over an emergency spillway at the nation's tallest dam for another day or so, officials said Sunday. (William Croyle/California Department of Water Resources via AP)
Nearly 200-thousand people were forced out of their homes as the emergency spillway on the highest dam in the U.S. threatens to collapse. Cal-Fire Incident Commander Kevin Lawson says the evacuation took place because of how dangerous the situation is. Public safety officials in Northern California put out the evacuation order yesterday afternoon over worries about Oroville Dam. Highways were jammed with bumper-to-bumper traffic as people living downstream from the earthen dam scrambled to higher ground. The emergency spillway had never been used until the main concrete spillway started crumbling last week after a huge hole opened up.