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Water flows on California dam's spillway after 2017 crisis

Officials at the nation's tallest dam unleashed water down a rebuilt spillway Tuesday 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.

Water flowed down the spillway and into the Feather River as storms this week and melting snowpack are expected to swell the lake behind Oroville Dam in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, said Molly White, principal engineer with the California Department of Water Resources.

The spring storms follow a very wet winter that coated the mountains with thick snowpack, which state experts will coincidentally measure Tuesday to determine the outlook for California's water supplies. Heavy winter rain and snow has left the state drought-free for the first time since December 2011, experts say.

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