Nearly 188,000 people were given a moment's notice to leave their home under a mandatory evacuation as damages to the Oroville Dam spillway threatened everything downstream.
One year later, Bobby O'Reiley said that evening stuck with him. The contractor was at work miles away from his home when the evacuation order came out.
His five children were with their babysitter at their home right under the dam.
“It was a very emotional time for me, for the whole community," O'Reiley said.
Matthew Thao, 21, was working a local gas station when the news broke. The station was flooded with customers rushing to get gas and the business sold out. It closed, along with many others in the small town for the next several days.
Residents there say the still have questions about what led to the near disaster. Since the incident, there have been several lawsuits nearing an estimate $1 billion against the states Department of Water resources, which manages the dam.