When Thousands Were Forced To Evacuate, These Furry Friends Were Left Behind
On February 12, nearly 200,000 Californians were forced to leave their homes when damage to the Oroville Dam emergency spillway put it at risk of collapsing.
The dam was built to drain water from Oroville Lake, but erosion led to a massive hole not only in its main spillway, but in its emergency spillway as well. The emergency spillway hadn’t needed to be used in almost 50 years.
Authorities had to utilize the emergency spillway after recent heavy storms began filling up the lake, but within a day, they discovered that the spillway could send a 30-foot wall of water into the towns below.
Unfortunately, many pets were left behind when people fled their homes, including a number of exotic animals. “There really wasn’t enough time. Loading those animals would have taken longer than people thought they had to survive,” the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said.
Luckily for the furry and feathered critters, a few CHP officers found them while checking abandoned properties.
The officers were surprised, however, when they came across some pretty unusual pets, such as Mary, a Muntjac deer, and even zebras.
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