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Hi KC Burke,
Yes, there was an event that went for 40+ days of rain & 10 to 15 ft of snow up in the mountains that combined to yield a “megaflood”.

Scientists have released research publications on this phenomenon and they dubbed it “ARkStorm” (play on the wording of Noah’s Ark).
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1312/of2010-1312_text.pdf

Below is an excerpt as the doc is sizable (download).
Notice the 2nd paragraph in the excerpt.... Then think of the current situation. There is more than 10 to 15 ft of snowpack. The recent wave after wave of “atmospheric rivers” inundating California... hmmm sounds like the same lurking scenario of water volumes.

Oroville Dam Specifications’ hydrological flow references, regarding floods, are in the upper right corner. I believe the larger numbers of “standard project flood” to “Spillway design flood” were intended to handle the worst case scenario encountered in the winter of Dec 1861-Jan 1862 - even if these cfs flow numbers are not present (they may have estimated that megaflood cfs flow for the Feather River basin).

== excerpt:
The hypothetical storm depicted here would strike the U.S. West Coast and be similar to the intense California winter storms of 1861 and 1862 that left the central valley of California impassible. The storm is estimated to produce precipitation that in many places exceeds levels only experienced on average once every 500 to 1,000 years.

Extensive flooding results. In many cases flooding overwhelms the state’s flood-protection system, which is typically designed to resist 100- to 200-year runoffs. The Central Valley experiences hypothetical flooding 300 miles long and 20 or more miles wide.
==

My understanding it that the Global Warming / Climate Change crowd in CA does not want to see an advancement in California water storage. Instead, they want NIMBY standards to force “others” out and forced water control and population limitation to reduce usage. There is no leftist interest in “solving” the water supply shortage.

The technology and understanding we now have was not available between the 1920s and 1975 when all of the current storage was built. Oroville is not something to survive and to try not to repeat, it is instead, the first episode of a long dramatic mini-series that will have episode after episode for year after year. Days of Our Lives coming to a stream bed near you.