Dam Spillway Faces 1st Use Since Imperiling California Towns

Water will rush down the rebuilt spillway at the nation’s tallest dam for the first time since it crumbled two years ago and drove hundreds of thousands of California residents from their homes over fears of catastrophic flooding. The state Department of Water Resources said it anticipated releasing water down the spillway as early as Tuesday due to storms feeding the enormous reservoir behind Oroville Dam in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.