Some Oroville Dam Evacuees Return Home, While Others Choose To Wait

OROVILLE (CBS13) — Tens of thousands of evacuees returned home Tuesday after fleeing in a mandatory evacuation order over the weekend over fears of the Oroville Dam's spillway collapse.

Oroville's Gregor Krause and his family stepped inside their home for the first time since being forced to leave.

"Oh super happy," Krause's daughter Annika Johnson-Krause said. "Very, very happy."

Unpacking is underway. For the past two nights, the family stayed with relatives in Chico after reluctantly following the sheriff's mandatory evacuation orders.

"It just seems like after six years of drought, it would be a horrible irony to die in a flood," Krause said.

Krause's family now feels no threat from the Oroville Dam spillway and feels they're safe at home.

"No we're fine," Krause's wife Tracy Johnson said. "We'll be fine."

Kristina Cervantes is not as confident. She's choosing to stay away from her Oroville home.

"I'm waiting for all the rain to be over I guess," Cervantes said. "I don't know my kids call me crazy, I call it my spidey sense."

Cervantes is making the Bangor Community Center her safe-haven.

An Oroville community declared to be on the brink of catastrophe.

"I think the public officials are in a tight spot where they have to play it safe and I understand that," Johnson said.

Now people here are told it's OK to come home, for now.