Oroville Dam Incident

Major Dam Safety Incident

Evacuations Ordered Downstream

In February of 2017, heavy rainfall caused significant damage to the main and emergency spillways of Oroville Dam in California, prompting the evacuation of more than 180,000 people downstream. The incident was one of the most serious dam safety incidents in the United States due to the size of the dam and spillways and the number of people at risk.

State officials ordered the evacuation after damage to the dam's spillway on Lake Oroville in Butte County, California, and erosion under the dam's emergency spillway. On Sunday, authorities ordered some 188,000 people around Oroville to evacuate their homes over concerns that the dam's emergency spillway could fail, potentially causing catastrophic flooding.