Water from Lake Orovile flows down the damaged main spillway: photo by Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times, 12 February 2017

Major sinkhole on spillway at Lake Oroville

Water cascades down the spillway below Oroville Dam. The water is being released by authorities to ease flooding in Lake Oroville because of recent heavy rain.: photo by David Butow / Los Angeles Times, 12 February 2017

A rainbow appears over Feather River as water cascades down the damaged spillway at Lake Oroville Dam.: photo by Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times, 12 February 2017

Lake Oroville overflow

Water flows down the damaged main spillway of the Oroville Dam at 55,000 cubic feet per second into the Feather River.: photo by Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times, 12 February 2017

Live updates: Evacuations ordered below Oroville Dam: Los Angeles Times, Feb. 12, 2017, 8:55 p.m.

"This is not a drill. Repeat this is not a drill,” the National Weather Service said Sunday, urging people living below Oroville Dam to evacuate.

The evacuation was ordered because of a “hazardous situation” involving the Northern California dam's emergency spillway. The National Weather Service said the auxiliary spillway is expected to fail and could send an “uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville.”

The mass evacuations cap a week of frantic efforts to prevent flooding as the reservoir behind America’s tallest dam reached capacity and its main spillway was severely damaged.

On Saturday, water levels rose so high that an emergency spillway was used for the first time. Officials initially believed the measure worked. But this afternoon, as more water from record storms flowed into Lake Oroville, officials detected a hole in the emergency spillway.

Officials are now trying to reduce water levels at the dam and repair the emergency spillway.

A failure of the emergency spillway could cause huge amounts of water to flow into the Feather River, which runs through downtown Oroville, and other waterways.

BREAKING: Reports coming out of Northern California that emergency spillway of #Orovile Dam is going to fail. Evacuations underway. #CAwx: image via Ian Schwarz Verified account @SchwartzTV, 12 February 2017

A migrant puts on his clothes after washing himself in an abandoned warehouse where he took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia. Photo by @Muheisen81: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 11 February 2017

Nice night for a Marine One arrival at the White House: image via Olivier Knox @OKnox, 12 February 2017

silent scream

Inspired by Japan PMs Mar-a-Lago visit (and jones for trump), AP puts 2 file pix together. Similar hats frame Abe as #MAGA product placement.: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThe Pix, 11 February 2017

President Trump after extended handshake with his Japanese counterpart @AbeShinzo : "Strong hands.": image via Kevinliptakcnn, 10 February, 2017

This photo taken from my instagram TL seems to capture one of the moments described in this @CNN piece [see below]: image via Enrique Acevedo @Enrique_Acevedo, 12 February 2017

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump tackles crisis diplomacy at close range: The launch wasn't expected. It presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency: Kevin Liptak, CNN White House Producer, CNN Politics, 12 February 2017

(CNN) The iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing, had just been served on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago Saturday when the call to President Donald Trump came in: North Korea had launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its first challenge to international rules since Trump was sworn in three weeks ago.

The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.

As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.

News of Pyongyang's launch had emerged an hour earlier, as Trump was preparing for dinner in his residence. Officials had concluded the Musudan-level missile flew 310 miles off North Korea's eastern coast before crashing into the Sea of Japan.

For the new commander in chief, the launch was his first brush with the hermit regime's saber-rattling, which along with heated rhetoric from the young leader Kim Jong-un has spooked the country's neighbors. During his pre-election intelligence briefings, Trump requested supplemental information about North Korea from US intelligence officials. National security analysts have identified the nation's nuclear program as one of the imminent threats facing Trump as he begins his tenure in the White House.

In his talks with Abe at the White House on Friday, the North Korea threat weighed heavily. Abe said during a concluding news conference that he and Trump had agreed to "strongly demand" the country "abandon (its) nuclear and ballistic missile program." They departed a short time later for Florida.

On Saturday evening, as the two men walked through Mar-a-Lago's ornate wrought-iron doors on their way to dinner, neither responded to questions about the launch from reporters.

Swanning through the club's living room and main dining area alongside Abe, Trump was -- as is now typical -- swarmed with paying members, who now view dinner at the club as an opportunity for a few seconds of face time with the new President.

But as he sat down for the planned working dinner with Abe, whose country is well within range of North Korea's missiles, it was clear his counterpart felt it necessary to respond to the test. The launch occurred just before 8 a.m. on Sunday morning in Japan.

Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo.

The patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.

Even as a flurry of advisers and translators descended upon the table carrying papers and phones for their bosses to consult, dinner itself proceeded apace. Waiters cleared the wedge salads and brought along the main course as Trump and Abe continued consulting with aides.

First lady Melania Trump and Abe's wife, Akie, remained seated across from their husbands, speaking quietly through a translator amid the activity. Earlier in the day, the women had toured a nearby Japanese garden and visited the gothic Bethesda-by-the-Sea church, where Trump and his wife were married in 2005.

Eventually Trump and Abe, along with their collection of aides, stood and moved from the dining terrace and toward a marble-trimmed ballroom, whose gilded columns were concealed by more sober-looking black drapes.

Standing in front of an American and Japanese flag, a stern-faced Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable," and insisted North Korea adhere to United Nations Security Council resolutions barring it from testing of ballistic missiles.

Trump, in his short remarks, didn't mention the launch. He used a short statement to vow support for Japan instead.

"I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%," Trump said.

He declined to read from a set of prepared remarks, which photographers captured images of, that were resting on his podium. Those remarks did mention the missile test specifically and vowed cooperation between allies to "safeguard and protect" against North Korea's "provocative acts."

"That was a joint statement we decided not to make," a senior administration official said afterward, explaining why those remarks were cast aside. Because Abe spoke first, and then Trump, there was "no need for communique," the official said.

Trump left the impromptu briefing room without taking questions, having delivered the first emergency foreign policy statement of his presidency.

But even as he confronted one of the gravest matters of his office, Trump nonetheless found it impossible to resist dropping in on a nearby wedding reception, already underway in his treasured Grand Ballroom. Trump designed and built the space himself after purchasing Mar-a-Lago in the 1980s.

Entering the ornate room, Trump took a photo with the bride and her bridesmaids, who posed in red gowns next to the commander in chief, mimicking his signature thumbs-up.

Then he grabbed a microphone.

"I saw them out on the lawn today," Trump said of the bride and groom, who were standing nearby. "I said to the Prime Minister of Japan, I said, 'C'mon Shinzo, let's go over and say hello.' "

"They've been members of this club for a long time," Trump said of the newlyweds.

"They've paid me a fortune."

The Obama way vs. the Trump way of handling an international crisis. No judgment, just facts.: image via Enrique Acevedo @Enrique_Acevedo, 12 February 2017

The Obama way vs. the Trump way of handling an international crisis.: image via Enrique Acevedo @Enrique_Acevedo, 12 February 2017

#WhiteHouse #job application. Apply now! Likely your last job if you get it. #donaldtrump #PresidentBannon #snl #jaredkushner #stevenmiller: image via MR @mantreb, 11 February 2017

Life after Donald Trump: The president's eldest sons plan to aggressively grow the Trump Org.: image via NYT Politics @nytpolitics, 12 February 2017

The news headline is quite unusual, esp w tabloid prez. Says given those in charge, escapism an unaffordable luxury. (via @amandarivkin): image via Reading The Pictures @Reading ThePix, 11 February 2017

#CoveroftheWeek "This swamp has no drain!" Illustration by @ZoharLazar for @Newsweek (USA): image via ClasssicFrontPages @CFPages, 12 February 2017

WHNPA @whnpa

Congrats to Jabin Botsford, Al Drago and Kevin Dietsch in the 2017 Eyes of History Still Contest, Inauguration 2017
Reading The Pictures Retweeted WHNPA

Reading The Pictures added,
Daring choice given child off limits. (Like #Trump has boundaries?) On the symbolism alone, though, it's inauguration as silent scream.

image via Reading The Pictures @ Reading ThePix, 11 February 2017

Ivanka and Jared, in black tie, exit Mar-a-Lago and drive away. Big partying tonight in Palm Beach, including for Steve Schwarzman's 70th.: image via Jennifer Jacobs @JenniferJJacobs, 11 February 2017

President Trump is back in Florida for another weekend at Mar-a-Lago.: image via Jill Colvin @colvinj, 10 February 2017

Mrs. Trump flying on Air Force One for the first time with the Abes: image via Kevin Liptak @kevinliptakcnn, 10 February 2017

The setting of Trump and Abe's dinner tonight. Also joining the couple: Bob Kraft.: image via Jill Colvin @colvinj, 10 February 2017

Trump began his dinner tonight talking up Kraft: "He knew he was going to win the game, even when he was down 28-3.": tweet via Jill Colvin @colvinj, 10 February 2017