Summary- More than 188,000 people were evacuated from several Northern California counties due to a damaged spillway at the Oroville Dam. Heavy rain throughout the winter has filled Lake Oroville to the verge of overflow. So much that the water is going over the emergency spillway which has never happened is it's 48 year history. The spillways are in place to make sure the water doesn't spill over the top of the dam. Because of the amount of water flowing through the main spillway it has caused the ground to start eroding and if the erosion continues the dam could be weakened and collapse. This amount of water would flood several counties, so law officials have enforced mandatory evacuations of several counties.
Analysis- This article was written by Madison Park and Elliott C. McLaughlin of CNN and posted on CNN's website on Monday Feb 13th. This was written to inform the public of the danger that these counties are in at this time. Hopefully the dam will hold up until the water levels decrease and repairs can be made to the spillway.
I hope nobody wasa hurt and damages aren't too severe!
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