Staff with the California Department of Water Resources watch as water is released from the Lake Oroville Dam after an evacuation was ordered for communities downstream from the dam in Oroville, California. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
OROVILLE, Calif. (Reuters) - Stormwaters receded on Monday behind the nation's tallest dam, in Northern California, as engineers raced to drain the rain-swollen reservoir and shore up a crumbling overflow channel before new storms sweep the region this week.
Authorities said they had averted the immediate danger of a catastrophic failure - one capable of unleashing a wall of water three stories tall on towns below.
