Danger in Northern California – level 3

16-02-2017 07:00

Two overflow channels of the Oroville Dam, a dam in northern California and the tallest dam in the USA, have been found damaged. Officials fear that the damaged spillway could release large amounts of flood water, so nearly 200,000 people had to evacuate.

According to the Red Cross, more than 500 people took refuge at an evacuation centre in a nearby town, but the shelter has run out of blankets and beds. As people are fleeing the potential flooding, a truck with more supplies got stuck in the gridlock.

People built Oroville Dam between 1962 and 1968 and at 230 metres high, it beats the well-known Hoover Dam, which is located just outside Las Vegas. It is taller than 12 metres.

Difficult words: spillway (if there is too much water in a dam, the water drains through here), flee (run away from a place of danger), gridlock (a situation when there is so much traffic for the cars to move).

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