California's Oroville Dam Latest: Evacuation Orders Lifted For 200,000 Residents

BUTTE COUNTY, CA — Thousands of residents who rushed to evacuate from their homes in Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties and have been sitting in evacuation centers, hotels and motor homes across Northern California since Sunday have been told they can go home. The Butte County Sheriff's Office amended the evacuation order to an evacuation warning as of Tuesday afternoon, cautioning those who return home to the cities near the Oroville Dam to "remain vigilant and prepared as conditions can rapidly change."

Officials said all evacuation shelters will be consolidated to the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds located at 2357 Fair Street in Chico. The fairgrounds accept large and small animals. Due to the uncertainty of the timeline surrounding the evacuation orders and weather conditions, many Butte County schools have been canceled through Friday. Click here for a full list of school closures.

Sunday evening, officials issued mandatory evacuation orders for 200,000 people around the dam after a hole developed in an auxiliary spillway threatening massive and widespread floods. Hundreds of cars sat for hours in the gridlock that followed.

Gov. Jerry Brown issued an emergency order for the area, and officials immediately mobilized all state-sponsored California Swift Water Rescue Teams while dam and construction experts have been working around the clock to find a solution to fix the damage that contributed to the fear that the emergency spillway could potentially fail.

Brown said Monday night that he will ask for funds for the affected counties. Brown called the situation in Oroville a “challenge of engineers, on the ground hands-on people who know how to fix the elements of this dam.”

Although officials say the water levels at the dam have since dropped, the next storm is expected Thursday and could last through Sunday.

About 600 inmates in Butte County were transported by school buses and a CHP escort hours away to the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Volunteers from the Salvation Army and Red Cross from as far away as Southern California and Oregon have moved into the area to help support and provide meals to evacuees. Those interested in donating to the Red Cross can click here. To donate to the Salvation Army click here or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

Glenn County Fair CEO Ryann Newman said the fairgrounds, one of the many originally designated evacuation centers, are perfect for handling this sort of emergency situation.

"While fairgrounds are thought of as a place for people to have fun, they are also well-suited for these types of disaster situations," Newman told Patch.

Newman says the fair is used to handling large crowds, and the fair system works together and shares resources.

At the Glenn County Fairgrounds in Orland, the evacuee population ranged from 80 people to 120 and was able to accommodate some large animals, cars and motor homes. According to Newman, evacuees had access to basketball, movies and Comcast cable.

Newman says the evacuees have all been extremely grateful.

On Monday, Cal Fire officials expressed their gratitude to the thousands of evacuees.

Construction of Oroville Dam began in 1961 and was completed in 1968. The dam created Lake Oroville, the second-largest man-made lake in California. It’s filled to the rim with more than 3.5 million acre-feet of water. The 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam is the nation’s tallest, about 44 feet higher than Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.

Water flows into the Feather River, and from there into the California Aqueduct, supplying farmers in the Central Valley and municipal water departments in Southern California.

See Also:

• Hundreds of Butte County Inmates Evacuated to Santa Rita Jail
• LA County Swiftwater Rescue Teams Called Back From Oroville
• Oroville Dam: Oregon Red Cross Volunteers Help Evacuees
• California's Oroville Dam Latest: Evacuation Order Issued For Nearly 200,000 Residents
• 5 Things That Could Happen If The Oroville Dam Breaks

Patch Editor Bea Karnes contributed to this report.

Photo 1 courtesy Glenn County Fair

Photo 2 courtesy CA - DWR Twitter