Yolo County opens shelter 
 
 Yolo County has opened a shelter to assist those affected by the Oroville Dam spillway evacuation at the Yolo County Fairgrounds in the home arts building, 1250 East Gum Avenue, Woodland. 
 
 Massive state response in place for dam emergency 
 
 State officials have activated hundreds of people to help deal with the Oroville Dam crisis, sending 100 California Highway Patrol officers to the region and placing 1,200 California National Guard members on notice that they may be needed. 
 
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 Three CHP helicopters and two aircraft have been dispatched to help with search and rescue, if needed, swift water rescue teams have been sent to the area and military police are being dispatched to help. 
 
 “The situation has been stressful,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the state Office of Emergency Services. “It’s complex and rapidly changing, so we are doing everything we can to support Butte County and the local authorities to be able to address most of the folks who have been displaced.” 
 
 Main spillway holding even as massive releases continue 
 
 The huge water releases that officials began to thwart an emergency at the Oroville Dam do not appear to be causing new damage to the main spillway, the acting director of the state’s Department of Water Resources said late Sunday. 
 
 Bill Croyle said pushing water out of the main spillway at 100,000 cfs hadn't seemed to cause any additional damage so far. "We haven't seen any," he said. 
 
 But he added that the main spillway will continue to be monitored constantly. "With a damaged spillway we want to be careful." 
 
 As long as the integrity of the main spillway holds, he believes he can push 1.2 million acre-feet of water out in a day's time, which would represent one third of the reservoir's total capacity. However, with water still flowing in at 40,000 cfs, the lake will remain relatively full; Croyle didn't know how full. 
 
 The erosion on the hillside below the emergency spillway is adjacent to a spot where the lip of the emergency structure is about 10 feet high, he said. 
 
 Governor issues emergency order to assist in dealing with Oroville Dam crisis 
 
 Gov. Jerry Brown’s office said he has issued an emergency order to help authorities deal with the evacuation and other efforts associated with concerns over the potential for flooding from Oroville Dam spillways. 
 
 “I’ve been in close contact with emergency personnel managing the situation in Oroville throughout the weekend, and it’s clear the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing,” Brown said. “I want to thank local and state law enforcement for leading evacuation efforts and doing their part to keep residents safe. The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to deal with this very serious situation.” 
 
 State emergency services officials are planning an 11 p.m. press conference to discuss their efforts. 
 
 No word on when evacuations may be lifted 
 
 Despite officials saying the immediate threat from Oroville Dam’s damaged spillway has passed, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said no decision has been made on when people will be allowed back into their homes. 
 
 Because of the uncertainty about the condition of the spillways, Honea said he is not prepared to risk public safety. 
 
 “I’m not going to lift the evacuation order until I have a better idea of what that means and what risk that poses,” Honea said. 
 
 Authorities say no looting concerns as 188,000 evacuated 
 
 Evacuation totals estimated at 188,000 as authorities say no concerns about looting 
 
 Authorities said late Sunday that they had issued evacuation warnings to 188,000 people because of concerns over damage to spillways at the Oroville Dam, but said there were no concerns about looting or problems associated with the move. 
 
 Law enforcement throughout the region were on scene in Oroville and other affected communities, but Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said there has been no looting or other crime problems. 
 
 “Anytime you take on a situation like this where you seek to evacuate thousands of people on very short notice, it can be a chaotic situation,” Honea said. “We understand that.” 
 
 Evacuation centers have opened throughout the area, and Honea said most hotels in Chico were full Sunday night. 
 
 Speaking at a 10 p.m. press conference, officials said water had stopped flowing over the emergency spillway and that the release of 100,000 cubic feet of water per second from the main spillway had helped drop the lake level. 
 
 “The goal is to get it to drop 50 feet,” said Kevin Lawson, a Cal Fire chief. “If we can continue to do that that’s great, that brings a little bit of calm to what we are trying to accomplish here.” 
 
 Bill Croyle, acting director of the state Department of Water Resources, said the fact that the lake had been lowered below the lip of the spillway would allow for inspection of the area, and he praised the decision to order evacuations. 
 
 “It was a tough call to make, it was the right call to make to protect the public,” Croyle said. 
 
 Water flow over spillway stopped 
 
 State officials say the water spilling over the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway has stopped as the lake level dropped low enough. 
 
 At 8:45 p.m. the lake level fell below the lip of the auxiliary spillway for the first time since Saturday and “the flowing has stopped,”said Department of Water Resources spokesman Doug Carlson. 
 
 Boulders dropped in effort to shore up spillway 
 
 At 9 p.m. a state water official said the concrete lip of the emergency spillway was still holding. 
 
 “The erosion has slowed, and I think we’re going to be OK,” said state Department of Water Resources spokesman Chris Orrock. 
 
 Orrock said efforts Sunday night to shore up the damage included the use of six helicopters that were dropping containers of boulders onto the damaged hillside. 
 
 Flows over emergency spillway dry up 
 
 Lake Oroville water levels have fallen to 901 feet, the level at which water flows over the emergency spillway, state figures from 8 p.m. show. 
 
 That means little or no water is likely coming over the emergency spillway – and the threat of collapse due to erosion has diminished said Joe Countryman, a member of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and a former engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 
 
 Water coming over the top of the emergency spillway is likely the main factor in its erosion, Department of Water Resources spokesman Chris Orrock said Sunday night. 
 
 Now, officials should be able to start assessing damage to the emergency spillway as it begins to dry. “They are going to dry out the emergency spillway area,” Countryman said. “They are going to start the repair work.” 
 
 This does not mean that the risk of catastrophic flooding has passed. Officials released water so quickly over the damaged main spillway that they may have further threatened its integrity, Countryman said. 
 
 A large section of concrete at the bottom of the spillway had already collapsed by Sunday, the initial cause of the emergency. As more of the main spillway collapses, it could threaten the spillway’s gates and force officials to stop releasing water into the main spillway, Countryman said. That would likely be catastrophic. 
 
 Orrock said Sunday night he did not know how much further damage was done to the main spillway by releasing water so quickly. 
 
 “I’m sure it’s going to be severe,” he said. 
 
 The morning will reveal how well the damaged, main spillway will hold up under such powerful flows, and whether it can be relied upon to handle that level of water through the rest of the rainy season, said Jay Lund, a civil engineering professor at UC Davis. 
 
 “The success of this strategy should be evident tomorrow morning after dawn,” he said. 
 
 Oroville dam emergency spillway The Sacramento Bee 
 
 Sunday night gridlock as Marysville residents evacuate 
 
 The frantic effort to evacuate Marysville had ground to a halt at B and 12th streets, the eastbound route to the Yuba foothills. By 8 p.m., hours after the first evacuation orders, a long ribbon of cars and trucks remained marooned at the hard right turn to higher ground. 
 
 Lisa and Francisco Esparza of Live Oak fled down Highway 99 to Yuba City, crossing the Feather River into Marysville. Now they were waiting in the long line for points east. Their stop, Grass Valley. They have no family there, they said, but no matter. 
 
 “We’re just going to get safe,” Lisa Esparza said. 
 
 For thousands in this area, battered in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s by catastrophic flooding, they know this is no drill, motorists naming their destinations as if it were a local bus route: Browns Valley, Brownsville, Grass Valley. 
 
 “There’s a lot of gridlock through the city,” said Marysville Police Lt. Chris Sachs. 
 
 Still others were stranded for different reasons. Jennifer Neff of Marysville wandered through a Chevron parking lot, her gas light glowing, her phone on hold with roadside assistance. 
 
 Gas stations like this Chevron on B Street were closed, their pumps shut off, even for debit and credit cards. 
 
 “There’s nowhere to get gas,” Neff said. “I’ve called roadside assistance – I’m on hold with them now. Do we call the police?” 
 
 Later, a young boy ran to the pumps, getting the attention of a motorist. 
 
 “Is there gas?” he shouted. 
 
 “They’ve shut them down,” came her reply. 
 
 For Joseph Wright, Autumn Kaley and their friends, huddled with their belongings and their dogs, Koda and Dooders outside Marysville’s police station, the situation was more dire. They said they were among the 40 or so told to evacuate 14 Forward – temporary housing for this city’s homeless. With no transportation, they were told to use their feet to find somewhere safe. 
 
 “There was no plan - they just let us know about an hour ago,” Wright said about 7 p.m. “We’re plumb out of ideas. They told us to walk out of the city limits.” 
 
 “A hotel for us won’t be safe,” Kaley said. “If we can just get out of here - (somewhere) nice, warm and safe.” 
 
 – Darrell Smith in Marysville 
 
 At least nine Chico hotels are full 
 
 Butte County announced on Twitter that at least nine hotels in Chico are confirmed full: 
 
 America’s Best 
 
 Courtyard Marriott 
 
 Haven Inn 
 
 Heritage Inn 
 
 Motel 6 
 
 Ramada 
 
 Oxford Suites 
 
 Quality Inn 
 
 Regency Inn 
 
 Beale Air Force Base opens roads to evacuees, offers shelter 
 
 Beale Air Force announced that it will allow residents to travel across the base to evacuate to higher ground. Drivers can enter at the Doolittle Gate off Hammonton Smartsville Road or Schneider Gate off North Beale Road. They will then exit via the Grass Valley gate. 
 
 The base also has opened a shelter for 400 people at the Harris Fitness Center. Evacuees should park at Dragon Town and then transfer to a registration area via bus. Call 530-634-8887 for more information. 
 
 Yuba City resident: ‘I think this panic is unnecessary.’ 
 
 Darlene Tulumello, 52, an unemployed legal secretary in Yuba City, was parked at the gas station with her husband and two cats, trying to figure out where to go. 
 
 Just an hour before, she said, they had been doing their grocery shopping when the store announced that it was closing. 
 
 Tulumello said they might head to Colusa, though she wasn’t feeling the same sense of urgency to get out of town as the miles of cars backed up on the freeway. Just yesterday, she added, she had been thinking about sticking around at home. 
 
 “I think this panic is unnecessary,” Tulumello said. “You might as well sit back, have a beer and let fate take its course.” 
 
 Gail Agrifoglio, 67, a retired shipping forklift driver, was caravaning down to Fairfield with her son, sister and niece to stay with her nephew. 
 
 She was feeling chipper about the visit, despite the traffic, and had only packed a few pillows and a pair of clean clothes. She expected to return the next day. 
 
 “I’ll actually get to see some family,” she said. 
 
 After having to evacuate several times before, Agrifoglio said, she was used it. She wasn’t worried about losing anything — though she acknowledged she didn’t have any flood insurance for her home anyway. 
 
 “If it goes, it goes,” she said, a raspy laugh erupting. 
 
 Vila Smith, 51, had left her job at Wal-Mart and was headed to Sutter to her take care of her 78-year-old father, who refused to leave his house. 
 
 Smith said she felt scared, especially being away from her children, whom she had sent down to Sacramento for safety. 
 
 Before leaving town she had stopped at home to grab her son’s Bible, which he forgot. She said she didn’t grab anything for herself, except a few important documents like her birth certificate. 
 
 “It’s all replaceable,” she said. “Bodies are not.” 
 
 – Alexei Koseff in Yuba City 
 
 Colusa County Fairgrounds serving as a rest stop, not an overnight shelter 
 
 Officials at the Colusa County Fairgrounds are directing evacuees to a different site in Orland. 
 
 The Colusa site is a rest stop for travelers with water and restrooms. Contrary to earlier news reports, it is not an evacuation site. 
 
 About 100 people are gathered in the fairgrounds parking lot, many with dogs and trunks packed with clothes. 
 
 “Nobody has been upset,” said Jonathan Howard, the fairgrounds chief executive. “They’re all happy to have a place to stop.” 
 
 Angela Mason of Live Oak gathered her kids as soon as she heard an evacuation order, but had to leave a beloved pet that they could not fit in their van. 
 
 Her husband is staying behind for the time being, watching their house and Tommy the pig. 
 
 She and three of her children are resting at the Colusa County Fairgrounds while they make final plans for the night. 
 
 Mason, 44, evacuated her house during floods in 1997. She said she wasn’t too worried following news about the damaged Oroville Dam spillway, but instantly took the evacuation order seriously. 
 
 “I grabbed the kids, threw it all in a bag and said, ‘Let’s go,’” she said. 
 
 She’s confident her husband will be able to evacuate if he needs to, but Tommy would have to wait out a flood. 
 
 – Adam Ashton in Colusa 
 
 Chico evacuation center is full; additional shelter open at Neighborhood Church 
 
 Butte County announced at 7:40 p.m. that the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds evacuation center is full. Another shelter is available at the Neighborhood Church in Chico, 2801 Notre Dame Blvd. 
 
 Sacramento hotels filling with evacuees 
 
 Evacuees are reserving hotel rooms along Hwy. 99 and Interstate 5 in Sacramento near the airport. The Homewood Suites by Hilton started getting calls around 6 p.m., said Front Desk Agent Gao Hang. Twenty reservations were made within the hour in back-to-back phone calls. 
 
 “They didn’t care about the price at all because they just need a place to go,” she said. “It’s not just us.” 
 
 Two neighboring hotels are filling up as well, she said. The Homewood Suites is about 75 percent reserved so far. 
 
 Lake levels down, but risk remains 
 
 Oroville Lake depths are decreasing rapidly as officials release a huge amount of water from its main spillway. 
 
 Lake levels have fallen about one-half a foot in the last two hours and stand at 901.35 feet, about four-tenths of a foot above the level where water flows through the emergency spillway, state figures show. 
 
 At that pace, water should stop spilling over the emergency spillway within several hours, giving officials a chance to more fully assess erosion. 
 
 Falling depths do not mean the areas below the dam are safe. The emergency spillway is essentially part of the dam and the concern is that it will fail, something that could happen even if water stops flowing over its top. 
 
 Evacuations are widespread 
 
 More than 160,000 people in evacuation area 
 
 More than 162,000 residents in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties were affected by Sunday night’s evacuation orders, census figures show. 
 
 Butte sheriff: Situation improving 
 
 State Department of Water Resources told Butte County Sheriff Kony Honea shortly after 6 p.m. that “the erosion that caused all this concern was not advancing as rapidly as they thought.” 
 
 “That’s a very good thing,” he said. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK The Department of Water Resources released a video shot by a drone over the Oroville Dam. Water is seen running over the emergency spillway as well as the main spillway. 
 
 There is a plan currently in place which would hopefully plug that hole, Honea said, including using helicopters dropping bags of rock into the crevasse to prevent any further erosion. 
 
 He said two inches of water is still coming over the dam, which “is significantly down” from earlier flows. 
 
 “That has helped reduce the level of the lake,” he said. “It’s hopefully going to reduce the pressure on that alternative, emergency spillway and stabilize the situation so we can find a repair and hopefully prevent it from complete failure.” 
 
 Meanwhile, officials say they’ve mobilized swift-water rescue teams to be ready should they need to rescue people in floodwaters below the dam. 
 
 Horse boarding, RV space offered 
 
 Sacramento businessman and former congressman Doug Ose is offering to help board horses for people affected by the evacuation. 
 
 “Gibson Ranch in northern Sacto County can accommodate 25 horses and RVs/campers/tents 916-806-3110,” Ose tweeted. 
 
 Residents scared 
 
 Some evacuees in Marysville say their mood is bordering on panic. 
 
 Erin English of Linda said she got a robo-call a few minutes ago telling her to evacuate and get to higher ground. 
 
 She immediately called 911 and dispatchers there at first told her to go to Chico, then changed their mind saying that she might not make it there before water came through. 
 
 Instead they told her to go to the Colusa Casino. 
 
 She was getting gas in South Marysville with her husband and two children and her dogs. They didn’t have time, she said, to grab anything from their home. 
 
 “I’m scared to death. I’ve never been through anything like this before,” she said. “I pray for the safety of everybody here.” 
 
 Kevin Carroll of Marysville said he’s dubious about the evacuation order, but he is obeying. 
 
 He lives on the banks of the Feather River and says the river is not high and could handle a lot more water. 
 
 Nevertheless he said the evacuation order is mandatory so he and his wife are gathering up some clothes and the dogs and heading out. 
 
 “My wife said go,” he said. “The river is right on our back door.” 
 
 He doesn’t expect Marysville to flood though. 
 
 “I’m not saying it won’t,” he said. “There’s a lot of room in that river right now. 
 
 “It can save lives or be a waste of time,” he said. “I hope for the best for the evacuees. Be safe.” 
 
 –Tony Bizjak in Marysville 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Concerned citizens in Marysville, California are not waiting around to see what happens with the Oroville Dam spillway, but are gathering their families within minutes, loading up the car and flooding local gas stations as the prepare to leave tow 
 
 Expert says spillway failure could be catastrophic 
 
 Nicholas Sitar, the Edward G. Cahill and John R. Cahill Professor of Civil Engineering at UC Berkeley, said losing 30 feet from the top of the emergency spillway could be catastrophic. 
 
 “You look at 30 feet times the area of the reservoir,” he said. “That is how much water is going to come out. That is a huge volume of water.” 
 
 He said the Department of Water Resources is “dumping as much water as the river could handle.” 
 
 He said, “All that you do is watch it – whatever expert you talk to, all you can do is hope for the best.” 
 
 Evacuation expands 
 
 Caltrans tweeted that the evacuation for Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties includes Hallwood, Marysville, Olivehurst/Linda, Plumas Lake, Gridley, Live Oak and Yuba City due to potential failure of Oroville Dam spillway. 
 
 Oroville and other area residents streaming out of town have created a large traffic jam at Highway 99 and Bogue Road, where many are fueling their vehicles and heading for safety. 
 
 Jessica Robertson, 28, a Yuba City resident, was among the throngs Sunday night filling her gas tank after receiving the word to get out. 
 
 “I’m fine, but I’m a little irritated with the traffic,” she said. “I hope everyone stays safe. They’re saying everything’s going to be fine, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.” 
 
 Michelle Grandinetti and her family quickly left their home off Oroville Quincy Highway and tried to get on Hwy. 70 to head for a family member’s home in Elk Grove. Grandinetti described a slow-going, frantic scene. 
 
 “We took enough clothes for three days, our children, seven total that are still with us, our two dogs and food for them!,” Grandinetti wrote in a Facebook message to The Bee. “We just moved here a few months ago and haven’t ever had to deal with this! Everyone is leaving! All the stores are closed! Just got on the freeway and the river is only feet away!” 
 
 Effect on Sacramento? 
 
 Sacramento emergency officials are monitoring impact of Oroville Dam emergency 
 
 Sacramento County emergency services officials say they are assessing what, if any, impact the Oroville Dam situation may have on Sacamento. 
 
 “We are aware of the situation in Oroville and will continue to monitor for any impacts it may have on Sacramento County,” authorities said in a tweet. 
 
 The worst case scenario 
 
 There is no map showing exactly what will happen if the emergency spillway collapses tonight. Officials only have a map showing a failure of the dam. That worst case scenario is useful in that it shows where water goes and how fast it gets there. 
 
 Water would get to the town of Oroville within an hour. 
 
 If Oroville Dam were to suffer a massive breach, water would get to the town of Oroville within an hour, according to GIS maps maintained by CalFire. 
 
 Within two hours, the small town of Briggs would be affected. In three hours, Gridley would be hit. Water would reach Live Oak in five hours.. 
 
 It would take eight to 12 hours for the water to get to Marysville and Yuba City. 
 
 If the dam completely failed, flood depths could reach more than 100 feet in Oroville and up to 10 feet in Yuba City. 
 
 The CalFire maps represent a catastrophic breach and are not necessarily indicative of what could happen tonight. 
 
 Oroville dam inundation area Speed of flooding Source: CalFire The Sacramento Bee 
 
 Heavy traffic amid evacuation 
 
 5:59 p.m. 
 
 Aerial photos show traffic backed up along Highway 70 as people from Oroville try to escape to the north. 
 
 Flows boosted to try to avoid collapse 
 
 5:52 p.m. 
 
 Releases through the main spillway at Oroville Dam have been boosted to 100,000 cubic feet per second from 55,000 cfs in hopes of easing pressure on the emergency spillway before a failure occurs, officials said Sunday night. 
 
 Kevin Dossey, a Department of Water Resources engineer and spokesman said “it might help” to alleviate the pressure. 
 
 So far, Dossey said, the emergency spillway’s concrete lip at the top has not crumbled, although the hillside had “eroded to within several feet” of the big concrete structure. 
 
 Marysville and Yuba County ordered evacuated; officials unsure how Sacramento could be hit 
 
 Marysville, Yuba County ordered to evacuate 
 
 5:42 p.m. 
 
 Marysville police say the city and Yuba County are under mandatory evacuation orders because of the feared collapse of the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville Dam. Yolo County officials said in a tweet that they do not expect any impact. 
 
 Witnesses reported a heavy police presence in the city. 
 
 “The hazardous situation concerning the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway is NOT expected to impact Yolo County,” the county said. 
 
 Cal OES spokesman Brad Alexander said officials were activating the state emergency operations center and could not immediately address how waterlogged Sacramento County might be affected. 
 
 “I can’t answer that right now,” Alexander said. 
 
 ‘It’s uncontrolled’ 
 
 5:30 p.m. 
 
 Fearing a gush from Lake Oroville if the emergency spillway collapses, officials are releasing as much as 100,000 cubic feet per second from the main, heavily damaged spillway in a frantic effort to drain the lake below where it spills out the emergency structure when the lake reaches maximum capacity, said Kevin Dossey, an engineer and Department of Water Resources spokesman. 
 
 The levee-line downstream channels in the Feather River could hold more than 150,000 cubic feet per second, said Maury Roos, a DWR hydrologist, but he said there’s a possibility that a levee could breach from the pressure. 
 
 Roos said that below where the Feather River merges with the Yuba River, levees are rated for a capacity of around 300,000 cfs. 
 
 When asked how much water could be released should the spillway collapse, DWR spokesman Chris Orrock said, “It’s uncontrolled. It’s uncontrolled.” 
 
 Dossey said the emergency spillway was rated to handle 250,000 cubic feet per second, but it began to show weakness Sunday at a small fraction of that. Flows through the spillway peaked at 12,600 cfs at 1 a.m. Sunday and were down to 8,000 cfs by midday. 
 
 Evacuation center at Silver Dollar Fairgrounds 
 
 5:15 p.m. 
 
 An evacuation center has been established for Oroville residents at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico, according to the National Weather Service. The address is 2357 Fair St. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK An evacuation order prompted by the erosion of the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam produced lines of vehicles on Bogue Road at Highway 99, coming out of Yuba City. 
 
 Butte County sheriff: “This is NOT A Drill.” 
 
 5 p.m. 
 
 The Butte County Sheriff’ Office released the following statement on Facebook: 
 
 This is an evacuation order. 
 
 Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. 
 
 A hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. Operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville. In response to this developing situation, DWR is increasing water releases to 100,000 cubic feet per second. 
 
 Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. 
 
 This in NOT A Drill. This in NOT A Drill. This in NOT A Drill. 
 
 Chris Orrock, a spokesman for the Department of Water Resources, told The Bee the failure happened as the bottom of the emergency spillway began to erode. 
 
 “It happened quickly,” he said. 
 
 Sutter County also put out an alert on Facebook: 
 
 We have received information about the potential for increased flows in the Feather River of as much as 100,000 cubic feet per second. We are gathering as much information as possible and will be providing additional information as soon as it is verified. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Sacramento Bee writer Dale Kasler seems to be the only car racing toward Oroville, as streams of cars are seen fleeing the Oroville area. 
 
 Officials warn of “imminent failure” at Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway 
 
 4:45 p.m. 
 
 Officials are warning those living downstream of Lake Oroville’s dam to evacuate because of a risk that the dam’s emergency spillway could collapse. 
 
 “They have what they expect to be an imminent failure of the axillary spillway,” said Mike Smith, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “What they’re expecting is as much as 30 vertical feet of the top of the spillway could fail and could fail within one to two hours. We don’t know how much water that means, but we do know that’s potentially 30 feet of depth of Lake Oroville.” 
 
 The Department of Water Resources, which operates the dam, said in a 4:42 p.m. Twitter post that the emergency spillway could fail within the next hour. 
 
 “Oroville residents evacuate northward,” the Tweet said. 
 
 Bee reporting from across the region 
 
 Today’s report on the Oroville Dam emergency includes contributions from Adam Ashton in Colusa; Andy Furillo in Chico; Dale Kasler in Oroville; Alexei Koseff in Yuba City; and Tony Bizjak and Darrell Smith in Marysville. Christopher Cadelago, Sammy Caiola, Anita Chabria, Ellen Garrison, Jessica Hice, Ryan Lillis, Marjie Lundstrom, Jim Miller, Phillip Reese, Ryan Sabalow, Hudson Sangree and Sam Stanton reported from Sacramento. ||||| A driver waits in traffic to evacuate Marysville, Calif., Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. Thousands of residents of Marysville and other Northern California communities were told to leave their homes Sunday evening... (Associated Press) 
 
 OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Nearly 200,000 people remained under evacuation orders Monday as California authorities try to fix erosion of the emergency spillway at the nation's tallest dam that could unleash uncontrolled flood waters if it fails. 
 
 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. 
 
 What they couldn't fit in their trunk they piled as high as they could in their downstairs Yuba City apartment and joined the line of traffic attempting to leave the city where they had moved just three weeks ago. 
 
 Panicked and angry residents sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic hours after the evacuation order was given. 
 
 Raj Gill was managing a Shell station where anxious motorists got gas and snacks while waiting for gridlocked traffic to clear. His boss told him to close the station and flee himself, but he stayed open to feed a steady line of customers. 
 
 "You can't even move," he said. "I'm trying to get out of here too. I'm worried about the flooding. I've seen the pictures — that's a lot of water." 
 
 A Red Cross spokeswoman said more than 500 people were at an evacuation center in Chino, California. The shelter had run out of blankets and cots, and a semi-tractor trailer with 1,000 more cots was stuck in the gridlock of traffic fleeing the potential flooding, said Red Cross shelter manager Pam Deditch. 
 
 A California Highway Patrol spokesman said they would have two planes out Monday to help with traffic control as well as search and rescue. 
 
 State Fire and Rescue Chief Kim Zagaris said at least 250 law enforcement officers from throughout the state are in the area or on their way to help with the evacuation. 
 
 Late Sunday, officials said the evacuation orders remained in place despite the fact water was no longer spilling over the eroded area. 
 
 "There is still a lot of unknowns," Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a news conference. "We need to continue to lower the lake levels and we need to give the Department of Water Resources time to fully evaluate the situation so we can make the decision to whether or not it is safe to repopulate the area." 
 
 About 188,000 residents of Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties were ordered to evacuate. 
 
 Acting Director Department of Water Resources Bill Croyle said officials will be able to assess the damage to the emergency spillway now that the lake levels have been lowered. 
 
 The erosion at the head of the emergency spillway threatens to undermine the concrete weir and allow large, uncontrolled releases of water from Lake Oroville. Those potential flows could overwhelm the Feather River and other downstream waterways, channels and levees and flood towns in three counties. 
 
 Oroville Lake levels had decreased by Sunday night as they let water flow from its heavily damaged main spillway. 
 
 Croyle said the department will continue releasing as much as 100,000 cubic feet per second from the main spillway to try and reduce the dam's level by 50 feet ahead of storms forecast to reach the area Wednesday. 
 
 Department engineer and spokesman Kevin Dossey told the Sacramento Bee the emergency spillway was rated to handle 250,000 cubic feet per second, but it began to show weakness Sunday after flows peaked at 12,600 cubic feet per second. 
 
 Honea said there was a plan to plug the hole by using helicopters to drop rocks into the crevasse. But Croyle said at that no repair work was done after officials looked at the flow and available resources. 
 
 Gov. Jerry Brown late Sunday issued an emergency order to fortify authorities' response to the emergency at the dam and help with evacuations. 
 
 Adjutant General David S. Baldwin of the California National Guard said at a news conference late Sunday that eight helicopters will be available Monday to assist with emergency spillway reconstruction. 
 
 The California National Guard put out a notification to all 23,000 soldiers and airmen to be ready to deploy if needed, he said. Baldwin says an alert for the entire California National Guard hadn't been issued since the 1992 riots. 
 
 Earlier Sunday, officials stressed the Oroville Dam itself was structurally sound. 
 
 Unexpected erosion chewed through the main spillway during heavy rain earlier this week, sending chunks of concrete flying and creating a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole that continues growing. Engineers don't know what caused the cave-in, but Chris Orrock, a Department of Water Resources spokesman, said it appears the dam's main spillway has stopped crumbling even though it's being used for water releases. 
 
 The lake is a central piece of California's government-run water delivery network, supplying water for agriculture in the Central Valley and residents and businesses in Southern California. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. ||||| Nearly 200,000 ordered evacuated as Oroville Dam danger spikes 
 
 OROVILLE, Butte County — Nearly 200,000 people downriver from Lake Oroville were ordered to evacuate Sunday night after an emergency spillway next to the reservoir’s dam appeared in danger of collapse. 
 
 While the integrity of Oroville Dam is not at risk, officials said a catastrophic amount of water was in danger of bursting through the wall of the auxiliary spillway alongside the 770-foot-tall dam. Pressure from the water cascading over the concrete lip of the spillway had caused rapid erosion below it, threatening to burrow a hole beneath and through the auxiliary structure. 
 
 Should such a rupture occur, water would inundate the Feather River and surge toward cities on the eastern side of the Sacramento Valley. 
 
 The good news late Sunday was that water levels in the reservoir were low enough that water was no longer tumbling over the auxiliary spillway. This means the eroded crevices aren’t getting any worse. 
 
 But officials were unwilling to say when the evacuation orders to some 188,000 people will be reversed, or how the eroded auxiliary spillway can be repaired. 
 
 “Now that there is no more water going over the emergency spillway, though it brings stability to the situation, there are still a lot of unknowns,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a 10 p.m. news conference. 
 
 Honea also defended his initial decision to order the mandatory evacuations. 
 
 “It can be a chaotic situation, and I understand that. But to this point, things are going fairly well,” Honea said. “We’re not at the point yet where we can make decisions about whether or not it is safe to repopulate areas.” 
 
 The first call for mandatory evacuations came shortly after 4:30 p.m. and included all low-lying areas in Butte County from Oroville south to the border of Sutter County. 
 
 “I couldn’t risk lives of thousands of people, so we took this significant step,” Honea said at a news conference earlier in the evening. “We needed to get people moving, quickly, in order to protect the public and save lives if the worst-case scenario came to fruition.” 
 
 Not long after that, evacuation orders also went out to low-lying areas near the Feather River farther south. This included Yuba City in Sutter County, with 65,000 people, and Marysville in Yuba County, population 12,000. 
 
 But as the evening went on, the edge of the auxiliary spillway wall remained intact. 
 
 Officials relieved pressure on the auxiliary spillway by increasing the amount of water being discharged down the main spillway to nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second, nearly twice the level of earlier in the day. Meanwhile, the water entering Lake Oroville from points north and east was less than 40,000 cubic feet per second — meaning that the high water levels behind the dam and spillways were beginning to drop. 
 
 “We have contingency plans drawn up, and crews are heading into the area to be on standby,” said Dan Olson of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He also said the initial estimates of the extent of the erosion and the pace at which it was spreading weren’t “as bad as the initial assessment suggest.” 
 
 That initial assessment was alarming — shortly before 5 p.m., officials warned that the spillway could give way within an hour. Roads quickly became jammed as thousands of people left a widening circle of communities around Oroville. 
 
 “This is very serious,” said Scott McLean, a Cal Fire spokesman who was stuck in the gridlock. “I’m just trying to get through traffic.” 
 
 Evacuation shelters were set up in Chico, Paradise (Butte County), Orland (Glenn County) and Grass Valley (Nevada County). In Yuba County, the Office of Emergency Services said on Facebook that it was moving its operations from nearby the Feather River “to a secure location.” 
 
 Gov. Jerry Brown also responded to the danger of large-scale flooding, declaring a state of emergency because “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist in Butte, Sutter and Yuba Counties.” Among other actions, the California National Guard will be activated as needed to assist in response efforts. 
 
 Water began spilling down the Oroville Dam’s auxiliary spillway Saturday after the main concrete spillway partly disintegrated under the pressure caused by more than a month of heavy rains. The discharge raised concerns over how the earth-lined backup channel would hold up, but state water officials had been confident about the integrity of the emergency spillway before the evacuation was ordered. 
 
 Another wet weather system, in what has been a soaking winter, is on deck to hit Northern California on Wednesday, requiring water managers to make still more room in Lake Oroville for another surge. 
 
 The series of Pacific storms is expected to bring up to 4 inches of rain to parts of the Central Valley, said Idamis Del Valle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office. 
 
 “We need to do everything we can to maximize our ability to move water our of this reservoir — not just for the coming storm but for the coming storms,” Bill Croyle, acting director of the California Department of Water Resources, said earlier Sunday. “Our planning is both short term and long term.” 
 
 Officials had stressed earlier Sunday that the structural integrity of the Oroville Dam itself — the tallest in the country — had not been compromised by the damaged spillway. 
 
 The reservoir is the second-largest in the state behind Shasta Lake (Shasta County) and supplies water to Central Valley along with water districts in the Bay Area and Southern California. 
 
 On Sunday, the cause of the hole in the main spillway was still being investigated. But experts noted that repairs had been made to the spillway in 2013 near where the hole emerged. 
 
 Chronicle staff writer 
 
 Peter Fimrite contributed 
 
 to this report. 
 
 Evan Sernoffsky, Jill Tucker, John King and Melody Gutierrez are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, jtucker@sfchronicle.com, jking@sfchronicle.com, mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @jilltucker, @JohnKingSFChron, @MelodyGutierrez ||||| "I've been in close contact with emergency personnel managing the situation in Oroville throughout the weekend and it's clear the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing," Brown said in a statement. "I want to thank local and state law enforcement for leading evacuation efforts and doing their part to keep residents safe. The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to deal with this very serious situation."
– More than 100,000 people fled their homes in northern California on Sunday as an emergency spillway next to America's tallest dam threatened to collapse and unleash what authorities called a catastrophic amount of water along the Feather River. While the evacuation took place, emergency repairs were performed on the spillway at the 770-foot Oroville Dam, with helicopters dropping rock-filled containers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The cities of Oroville, Yuba City, and Marysville were among those under mandatory evacuation orders. Saturday, when a hole developed in the main spillway, was the first time the emergency spillway was used since the dam was completed in 1968. Authorities say the dam itself remains structurally sound, reports the Los Angeles Times. Officials said Sunday night that the immediate danger was subsiding because the level of the man-made Lake Oroville had dropped below the level of the emergency spillway for the first time in more than 24 hours, the Sacramento Bee reports. But authorities warned that the danger of catastrophic flooding remains, with the main spillway still in danger of collapse because water was released so quickly along it to relieve pressure on the auxiliary spillway, causing further erosion. The AP reports that the evacuation order covered 188,000 people in Yuba, Sutter and Butte counties and that people were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic out of the area more than five hours after the order was issued.