NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – State officials said Wednesday that repairs are continuing around the clock to repair the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway ahead of anticipated storms.

Concerns that the emergency spillway was about to fail led on Sunday to the evacuation of 188,000 people in Butte, Yuba and Sutter counties, as Lake County News has reported. Those mandatory evacuations were reduced to a warning on Tuesday.

The California Department of Water Resources said that levels on Lake Oroville fell an additional 5 feet and were 26 feet below the emergency spillway as of Wednesday night.

Crews continue to work around the clock, regardless of weather conditions, to make emergency repairs. Barges and cranes are being mobilized to remove debris and sediment from the diversion pool, the agency said.

The Department of Water Resources said 100,000 cubic feet per second of water continues to flow through the flood control spillway in an effort to accommodate anticipated inflow from upcoming storms.

Officials said the storms are forecasted to bring colder temperatures and inflows are anticipated to increase to 45,000 cubic feet per second. However, lake levels will continue to decrease throughout the storm activity.

The agency said it continues to aggressively monitor the status of the dam, spillways, related structures and progress of repair activities.