Oroville Dam Breaks

Sydnee Cook, Staff Writer

There are many dams in America, one of them is called the Oroville Dam, located in Oroville, California. It stands 770 feet tall and is the tallest dam in the U.S. and impounds the second largest man-made lake in California, Lake Oroville, holding back one trillion gallons of water. It’s about 50 years old and is mainly used for water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control.
Unfortunately, the dam recently became a major threat. On Sunday, February 12th, authorities had about 188,000 people evacuate their homes because of concerns that the dam’s emergency could fail and water could seriously flood nearby towns and roads.
By Tuesday, people were told they could return home, besides the fact that the danger hasn’t completely subsided yet, and there’s storms coming this week, but luckily the spillways will hold up.
The dam is still over flowing today, and several schools remain closed, and will probably go back to school on Tuesday. Authorities seem to have this situation together, and the families back home are safe. Hopefully the dam will be fixed soon