Lake Oroville water levels continue to fall as state officials send nearly 100,000 cubic feet of water per second down the main spillway in hopes of dropping the reservoir as much as 25 feet by the time the next storm arrives Wednesday night.
According to the latest state data, the lake was at 889.49 feet as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, more than 13 feet below where it stood when evacuation orders came down Sunday evening.
Crews are working furiously to bolster eroded sections of the emergency spillway. That damage occurred after the lake topped 901 feet on Saturday morning and sent water over the concrete lip of that spillway for the first time since Oroville Dam was built in 1968.
Evacuations of 188,000 people from Oroville down to Plumas Lake remain in effect. With little notice, residents fled Sunday night to evacuation centers, hotels and relatives' homes throughout the region, including the greater Sacramento area. Emergency shelters are operating in Roseville, Woodland and at Cal Expo. The area's Sikh temples also have opened up their doors to help evacuees.
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