Remember Oroville? See the scene as Michigan towns evacuate after dams fail

A deluge of rain caused two dams in central Michigan to breach Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of about 10,000 residents and prompting officials to warn of life-threatening danger as floodwaters rose.

Scenes of the flooding can be seen in the video above.

The scenario was reminiscent of the Oroville Dam crisis in Northern California in 2017 that sent 188,000 people fleeing for their lives. A massive sinkhole in the spillway sparked the evacuation and ultimately destroyed the lower half of the structure and much of an adjoining hillside.

After the failures on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, of the Edenville and Sanford dams, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for areas near the Tittabawassee River. Residents in nearby towns were evacuated. Downtown Midland, a city of 42,000 people, faced an especially serious flooding threat, according to the Associated Press.

This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 9:28 AM.