California prepares for catastrophe: Battle continues to stop dam collapse that would drown the area under 100ft of water and sparked an evacuation of 200,000, leaving ghost towns behind

Nearly 200,000 people remained under evacuation orders on Monday as California authorities battle stop a collapse at the nation's tallest dam that could unleash 100 foot of uncontrolled flood waters if it fails. The California National Guard put out a notification to all 23,000 soldiers and airmen to be ready to deploy if needed. An alert for
the entire California National Guard hadn't been issued since the 1992 riots. About 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, Lake Oroville - one of California's largest man-made lakes - had water levels so high that an emergency spillway was used Saturday for the first time in almost 50 years. The evacuation was ordered Sunday afternoon after engineers spotted a hole on the concrete lip of the secondary spillway for the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam and told authorities that it could fail within the hour. 'I'm just shocked,' said Greg Levias, who was evacuating with his wife, Kaysi, two boys and a dog. Civilians were told to get in their cars and leave the area surrounding the Oroville Dam in Northern California because of its damaged spillway. Heavy rainfall meant water in Lake Oroville reached a 50-year high and a gaping chasm in the main spillway disrupted the flow of the water, prompting fears a 30-foot wall of water would be unleashed in flash floods akin to a tsunami. The extra water meant the dam's emergency spillway was called into action for the first time in half a century. Experts estimated the dam would be breached at 4.45pm on Sunday, but dropping huge rocks into the 170-foot by 250-foot hole appears to have relieved the problem temporarily.


Source: MailUK