As Oroville Dam Evacuations Ease, Residents Return With Wary Feeling

OROVILLE (CBS13) — People returning to their Oroville homes Tuesday evening said they're relieved and nervous to be back, as emergency work continues up at the Oroville spillway.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea downgraded the evacuation, after receiving word from Department of Water Resources officials that construction crews are making great progress in reinforcing the backup spillway.

Helicopters are moving every one and a half minutes, aggressively dropping boulders on the sinkhole. They hope to finish the operation before the dreaded storms hit the region.

DWR officials say the boulder drops - combined with the lake releases- will protect the town from a "catastrophic failure" of the spillway.

But in an interview with CBS13, state Sen. Jim Nielsen said this crisis is a wake up call. Nielsen says he's part of a federal investigation now underway to find out why officials ignored warning signs at the dam more than a decade ago.

"Putting the spillways back so that they can be served now is not the answer. That's the temporary fix. It's going to have to have long term - new superstructures- and there are going to be other technologies and strategies developed out of this that will help other dams," Nielsen said.

For now, people returning home hope they won't have to turn around and leave again. The evacuation warning means they may have to leave town again at a moments notice.