About 500 people were forced to evacuate their homes Monday night after a levee along the San Joaquin River near Manteca was breached, San Joaquin County officials said.

The county's office of emergency services said at 9:15 p.m. that the breach was halted. However, mandatory evacuations will remain in place until OES officials have deemed it safe.

Mandatory evacuations, which impact mostly farms and ranches, were ordered for people living within the below boundary:

— South of Woodward Avenue

— West of Union Road

— North of Mortensen Road

— East of the San Joaquin River

An evacuation center was set up at the Lathrop Community Center, at 15552 5th Street.

The levee breach is south of Highway 120 and west of Manteca Road. It is about 2 miles west of Airport Way and Perrin Road. The levee breached on the east side of the San Joaquin River around 4 p.m., officials said.

California Department of Water Resources officials and crews were at the site monitoring the breach before it got worse. Residents in the area then received an emergency text around 7:25 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the area on due to the levee breach. The warning is set to expire at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Manteca resident Dino Warda said several farmers in the area took their tractors and excavators to the levee breach and helped to shore it up. The farmers and construction crews are still at the scene.

McMullin Road and Airport Way are blocked due to the evacuations.

This story originally appeared on KCRA.com.