Villages of the Dam: Homes and businesses beneath California's crumbling Oroville Dam lie abandoned underwater - as it's revealed officials were warned about the structure TWELVE YEARS ago

Eerie images of drowned buildings (Riverbend Park pictured bottom-left and right) and ghost towns have emerged from the area below California's crumbling Oroville Dam (pictured during dramatic overflow on Sunday, top-left) after hundreds of thousands were ordered to evacuate. And it might have been averted had feds and water agencies not ignored warnings 12 years ago that
the 49-year-old structure was at risk of collapsing. It also appears that repairs on the massive dam - which was left falling apart after a surprise burst of heavy rainfall - were not earmarked in Governor Jerry Brown's $100 billion list of key infrastructure projects this month. The rainfall that is expected Wednesday could pour into a gaping 250ft chasm in the concrete spillway, causing a collapse and unleashing a 30ft 'tsunami' tidal wave that could leave towns along a 40-mile stretch of the Feather River below the dam under 100ft of water. The situation is now so critical that President Trump is being urged to declare a disaster in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties, where 200,000 people, including Department of Water staff, were frantically ordered to evacuate their homes and places of work on Sunday.