
Authorities in California were so sure the Oroville Dam was going to catastrophically collapse that they abandoned their command post on Sunday evening.

At a press conference on Monday, the Acting Chief of the Department of Water Resources Billy Croyle revealed the situation had become so perilous he ordered his staff to flee.

Officials also admitted they are in a race against time to drain up to 50-feet of water from the stricken Oroville Dam before a storm hits on Wednesday.

Almost 200,000 people were frantically ordered on Sunday to evacuate along a 40-mile stretch of the Feather River below the dam after authorities said its emergency spillway could give way.

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Destruction: An aerial photograph shows the damage done to the area surrounding the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam after it nearly collapsed on Sunday

Power: A water utility worker stares at the staggering amount of water being released down the main spillway at the Oroville Dam after its spillway almost collapsed on Sunday - sparking the evacuation of 200,000 people

A gaping 250-foot chasm was expected to collapse and unleash a 30ft 'tsunami' tidal wave that could have killed thousands and left nearby towns under 100ft of flood water.

Tens of thousands of panicked residents took to the freeways, causing total gridlock on the roads and sending anxiety levels soaring as they wondered if the dam would burst while they were sat in their cars.

'Everyone was running around; it was pure chaos,' Oroville resident Maggie Cabral told CNN affiliate KFSN on Sunday.

'All of the streets were immediately packed with cars, people in my neighborhood grabbing what they could and running out the door and leaving. I mean, even here in Chico, there's just traffic everywhere.'

Still pouring: Water continues to run down the main spillway at Lake Oroville on Monday. The water level dropped overnight behind the nation's tallest dam

Inspection: State officials waited for the light of dawn to inspect an erosion scar on the main spillway at northern California's Oroville Dam

Still flowing: As the day began, officials from the California Department of Water Resources prepared to inspect an erosion scar (pictured) on the main spillway at the dam on Lake Oroville, about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco

On Monday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the evacuation below the nation's tallest dam will not end right away.

He added that they are working on a plan to allow residents to return home when it's safe - but offered no timetable for when they would be allowed to go home.

He added that so far there have been zero reports of looting in any of the evacuated towns.

Honea also said more than 500 Butte County jail inmates were safely transferred to Alameda County Jail farther south.

And as officials rushed to release water from the dam and fix the spillway, the empty abandoned cities resembled ghost towns after the forced evacuations.

Looming danger: A California Department of Fish and Wildlife employee observes the rushing water as it drains down the spillway at the Oroville Dam after it nearly partially collapsed on Sunday

Pouring: The department said authorities were releasing water to lower the lake's level after weeks of heavy rains in drought-plagued California

Raging: The water level dropped Monday behind the dam, reducing the risk of a catastrophic spillway collapse and easing fears that prompted the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream

Hope: Water officials say storms expected later this week near communities evacuated over the threat of a spillway collapse at the nation's tallest dam will be smaller than last week

Makeshift: Water rushes down a spillway as an emergency measure at the Oroville Dam in Oroville, California

Surgery: A helicopter kicks up dust as it lands at a staging area near the Oroville Dam on Monday where rocks are being readied to be dropped into the 250-foot hole in the spillway

However, while the situation seemed less dire by Monday morning, it is still critical and the evacuees were told they could not return to their homes because the coming storm might still destroy part of the dam.

Meteorologists are predicting the rain to begin on Wednesday night, dumping up to four inches by Thursday morning with more to drain from the mountains during the day.

On Monday, emergency crews prepared loads of rock to be dropped by helicopters to seal the crumbling spillway that threatens to inundate communities along the Feather River in Northern California.

Local crews were seen in dump trucks dropping off piles of rock, which were then loaded into the bags with backhoes. The operation to close the gap would begin as soon as it was feasible, authorities said.

The crisis suddenly and dramatically began on Sunday afternoon when the Department of Water Resource said the spillway next to the dam was 'predicted to fail within the next hour'.

However, it has remained intact.

Complex: Water from the Oroville Dam Auxiliary Spillway at Lake Oroville continues to flow and has eroded the roadway just below the spillway that leads to the boat ramp

Brutal fix: Rock is prepped to be used on the Lake Oroville Dam to plug the hole in the spillway that almost imploded

Effort: Officials said the situation seemed less dire overnight but Sacramento television station KCRA reported that helicopters from around the state were sent to drop chest-high bags of rocks to close the hole in the spillway

Staging area: The water level dropped Monday behind the nation's tallest dam, reducing the risk of a catastrophic spillway collapse and easing fears

Respite: Officials have been inspecting the nation's tallest dam since first night this morning in a desperate effort to stop a devastating 100-foot tsunami from being unleashed. Pictured is the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam on Monday morning after the water level dropped

And residents and local officials have described a panicked and chaotic scene on roads and freeways during the moments after the evacuation order.

Jodye Manley of Olivehurst says she and her husband were having dinner Sunday at her daughter's house in Sacramento when she got word from a city councilman friend that her area would probably be evacuated.

She says the couple got gas and made a mad dash to get their four dogs and three cats. Manley says she and her neighbors were completely panicked and that the scene 'was almost like a movie.'

She says the traffic-filled return to Sacramento was terrifying, with people thinking the spillway would go at any moment.

Chico Councilman Andrew Coolidge says the seven shelters he visited are packed with residents who describe similar terror on jam-packed roads to safety.

Errie: The city of Oroville is empty after an evacuation was ordered for communities downstream from the Lake Oroville Dam

Deserted: Residents and local officials have described a panicked and chaotic scene on roads and freeways during an evacuation over the threat of a spillway collapse at the nation's tallest dam

Waiting: Katherine March, 63, and her daughter Penny Conn, 48, (left) wait in line for a hot meal at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds while Patrick Cumings, (right), holds his daughter, Elizabeth, and he stands with his wife, Elizabeth Cumings at the Red Cross evacuation center in Chico

While most fled, some had no choice but to remain behind.

The chief executive of the Oroville Hospital says it is operating normally but that 100 patients have been moved to the hospital's second floor.

Hospital CEO Robert Wentz says the hospital took the step Monday morning 'out of an abundance of caution.'

The hospital is outside the flood zone below the dam on Oroville Lake and sits on a hill.

Wentz says evacuating acutely ill people is difficult so it is usually better for them to stay where they are.

He says patients will not go back to the hospital's first floor until authorities tell the hospital it is safe to do so.

Overnight, state and local officials said the immediate danger had passed with water no longer flowing over the eroded spillway but they cautioned that the situation remained unpredictable.

'Once you have damage to a structure like that it's catastrophic,' acting Water Resources director Bill Croyle told reporters. But he stressed 'the integrity of the dam is not impacted' by the damaged spillway.

The state Department of Water Resources wants to drain 1.2 million acre feet of water from Lake Oroville at the dam before Wednesday's storm.

They said that the capacity of the reservoir, which is the second largest in California, is about 35 million feet.

Currently, the water level of Lake Oroville is dropping at a rate of roughly three- to four-inches per hour, according to the agency. Which would put it on course to fail to reach its target of 50 feet by Wednesday.

Fight: This long exposure photograph shows the Oroville Dam discharging water at a rate of 100,000 cubic feet per second over a spillway as an emergency measure

Overflow: Officials said on Sunday night water falling over the Oroville Dam's spillway has stopped as Oroville lake levels dropped low enough

Spillway: A massive hole is causing major erosion around the Oroville Dam in California. The hole formed in the main spillway (pictured) on Tuesday and has continued to grow since then

Precarious situation: An aerial of the Oroville Dam reveals the dangerous flooding at the emergency spillway that has left the area in imminent danger of a catastrophic flood

Aerial: Lake water flows over the emergency spillway, bottom left, at Lake Oroville for the first time in the nearly 50-year history of the dam on Saturday

The department said authorities were releasing water to lower the lake's level after weeks of heavy rains in drought-plagued California.

The water level in Lake Oroville rose significantly in recent weeks after a series of storms that dumped rain and snow across California, particularly in northern parts of the state.

The high water forced the use of the dam's emergency spillway, or overflow, for the first time in the dam's nearly 50-year history on Saturday.

Officials said they feared the damaged spillway would unleash a 30-foot wall of water on Oroville. They said evacuation orders remained in place for some 188,000 people in the area and are still in place.

The Yuba County Office of Emergency Services urged evacuees to travel east, south or west. 'DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE,' the department warned on Twitter.

Evacuation centers were set up at a fairgrounds in Chico, California, about 20 miles northwest of Oroville, but major highways leading south out of the area were jammed as residents fled the flood zone.

Javier Santiago, 42, fled with his wife, two children and several friends to the Oroville Dam Visitors Center in a public park above the dam and the danger zone.

With blankets, pillows and a little food, Santiago said: 'We're going to sleep in the car.'

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This map shows the potential worst case scenario for what could happen if the waters are not controlled and the flood breaks through the dam. It would take about 12 hours for the water to reach Yuba City more than 40 miles away following the path of the Feather River

The water falling over the Oroville Dam's emergency spillway stopped as the lake level dropped on Sunday

THE ANATOMY OF CATASTROPHE: WHAT HAS LED TO THE POTENTIAL DISASTER AT THE OROVILLE DAM One of the key factors in the threat is the rapid rate at which water levels have risen. After years of severe drought in the region, heavy rain and snow have sent levels skyrocketing. It is the first time that Lake Oroville, which lies 65 miles (105km) north of Sacramento, has been faced with such a potentially devastating emergency in the dam's nearly half-century history. The order for nearby residents to flee was issued after water levels climbed in the last week. The rise was compounded by the fact the dam's main spillway, also known as an overflow channel, was found to be damaged. As a result, the dam's emergency spillway was called upon and activated for the first time since it was built in 1968, as flood waters rose ever higher. But shockingly, the secondary spillway was also found to be damaged. In a statement posted on social media on Sunday afternoon, Mr Honea ordered residents to evacuate, repeating three times that it was 'NOT a drill'. The California Department of Water Resources warned that the emergency spillway next to the dam was 'predicted to fail'. Advertisement

With more rain expected Wednesday and Thursday, officials were rushing to try to fix the damage and hoping to reduce the dam's water level by 50 feet ahead of the storms.

The sudden evacuation panicked residents, who scrambled to get their belongings into cars and then grew angry as they sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic hours after the evacuation order was given.

Raj Gill, managing a Shell station where anxious motorists got gas and snacks, said his boss told him to close the station and flee himself. But he stayed open to feed a steady line of customers.

THE DOOMSDAY SCENARIO: HOW FAR THE WATER WILL SPREAD IF OROVILLE DAM BREAKS 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. (According to the Sacramento Bee) Advertisement

'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 showed up at an evacuation center in Chico, California.

The shelter ran out of blankets and cots, and a tractor-trailer with 1,000 more cots was stuck in the gridlock of traffic fleeing the potential flooding Sunday night, Red Cross shelter manager Pam Deditch said.

A California Highway Patrol spokesman said two planes would fly on Monday to help with traffic control and possible search-and-rescue missions.

At least 250 California law enforcement officers were posted near the dam and along evacuation routes to manage the exodus and ensure evacuated towns don't become targets for looting or other criminal activity.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said a lot was still unknown.

'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,' Honea said.

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 level has come down.

It comes after it emerged amid the frantic evacuations that federal and state officials and some of California's largest water agencies rejected concerns 12 years ago about the precarious state the dam - which was built between 1962 and 1968.

The dangerous situation sparked the California National Guard to put out a notification to all 23,000 soldiers and airmen to be ready to deploy if needed.

The last time an alert for the entire California National Guard was issued was the 1992 riots.

'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.

The area under threat: 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

GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN: WHERE THE 200,000 EVACUATED ARE FROM 39,000 from Butte Count 65,000 from Yuba County 76,000 from Yuba City 12,000 from Marysville County Advertisement

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.

Local Sikh leaders announced early on Monday morning they have thrown open temple doors across the area, and are offering food and shelter to all people who have been forced from their home.

Sikh Temples offering food and shelter ... open to ALL evacuated people #OrovilleDam #OrovilleSpillway ... Please share pic.twitter.com/4O5ZUhl1TH — Shivpreet Singh (@shivpreetsingh) February 13, 2017

Bumper-to-bumper: If the dam collapses, water would get into Oroville within an hour. Shortly thereafter, the nearby towns of Briggs, Gridley and Live Oak would be affected. It would take eight to 12 hours for water to reach the cities of Marysville and Yuba City

Safe: Evacuees Jason and his wife Elizabeth Bourquin of Live Oak, settle in for the night with their son Dallas, 5, at the Neighborhood Church of Chico in Chico, California

The Oroville Dam wqas expected to fail on Sunday night. It didn't, but if it did it could send an 'uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville' to nearby cities

Comfort: Chris Arden (left) keep evacuee George Moody company in the main sanctuary of the Neighborhood Church of Chico in Chico

Breaking news: Colette Roberts and her daughter Lesilee watch video updating the of the Oroville dam evacuations

Escape: Angie Varrera walks across an empty parking lot (center) after finding the grocery store she stopped at closed due to an evacuation order on Sunday

Checking the surrounding area: A Butte County Sheriff's vehicle patrols a shopping center that had been evacuated

Officials remained on edge late into Sunday night despite the fact water had stopped spilling into 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.

Water from the nearby Feather River floods the Marysville Cemetery on Saturday in Marysville, California

Bill Croyle, acting Director of the California Department of Water Resources, speaks as Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea listens at a news conference about the situation at the Oroville Dam on Sunday

FROM DROUGHT TO DELUGE: THE DRASTIC CHANGES TO LAKE OROVILLE Dramatic pictures taken or Lake Oroville stand in stark contrast to the chaotic scenes witnessed over the weekend. Rather than seeing the rush of water bursting through overflow spillways, boats sat idle as most of the dam's sandy floor could be seen - due to it being just 25 per cent full in May 2015. Houseboats on the lake were forced to moor just meters apart as the aquatic real estate available for them to occupy continued to shrink. During the drought: A section of Lake Oroville is seen nearly dry on August 19, 2014 The impact of the drought was seen in 2014 and 2015, with the dam almost entirely dry during the lengthy spell Photographs taken from atop the rolling water made it almost impossible to see the water below. So much of it was gone, and it was unsure whether it would ever come back. At the time, statewide water restrictions were been ordered for the first time in history to combat the region's devastating drought. In April of 2015, California's Governor Jerry Brown ordered a 25 per cent cutback in water use by cities and towns. Dozens of houseboats had been forced to move closer together at the dam because there was simply not as much space for them to anchor as the drought continued Low water levels are visible in the Bidwell Marina at Lake Oroville on August 19, 2014 The crackdown came as the state moves toward a fourth summer of drought with no relief in sight. Brown's crackdown came after he asked residents in January 2014 to cut their water consumption by 20 per cent. Unfortunately, on half of all Californians managed to achieve that. But those dry days couldn't be further from the minds of locals now, as fears grow suburbs downstream could be covered in floodwaters if the dam breaks after heavy rainfall and snow in recent months. Advertisement

About 39,000 were from Butte, along with 65,000 from Yuba, 76,000 from Yuba City, and 12,000 from Marysville.

After years of drought Northern California has endured several months of exceptionally wet weather. Oroville and other lakes are brimming and have begun releasing water to make room for more runoff. An aerial photo released by the California Department of Water Resources shows the damaged spillway with eroded hillside in Oroville on Saturday

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.

Adjutant General David S. Baldwin of the California National Guard said at a news conference late on Sunday that eight helicopters will be available Monday to assist with emergency spillway reconstruction.

The auxiliary spillway at the Oroville Dam was expected to fail by 5:45pm local time on Sunday, which could have sent an 'uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville'. Water continues to gush down the dam's main spillway on Saturday

It was estimated over the weekend that the damage bill has already hit about $200million, but that figure it expected to rise as inspectors find further faults this week, according to USA Today.

Even if the worst case scenario is avoided this week, the impact of the scare could be felt for months.

The dam is one of the key ones for California, and lengthy repairs could impact the state's supply.

'If repairs take longer than just this summer, which seems likely,' Roger Bales, an engineering professor and director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of California, Merced, told USA Today, 'the reservoir may need to be operated at a lower capacity until those repairs are done.'

An image from video provided by the office of Assemblyman Brian Dahle shows water flowing over the emergency spillway

Water trickles down as workers inspect part of the Lake Oroville spillway failure on Wednesday, February 8, 2017 in Oroville, California

Officials said the critical flood-control structure is at 90 per cent of its capacity. But the dam is still safe and so are Oroville's 16,000 residents