Yes, Oroville's Dam location, massive size/elevation & reservoir to flood control inlet elevations, creates a very significant energy potential. The hydro plant is not designed to handle an emergency situation to "neutralize" an accumulated reservoir head.
btw- Sinclair Dam is a perfect example -to compare to Oroville's ES specs- of a flood control gate structure designed for a total combined 240,000 cfs flow capacity (each gate is rated at/near 10,000 cfs). [Technically, the flood control gates would lower the lake/reservoir to the height of the lowest elevation of the flood control gate inlets. The hydro plant inlet is lower and its flow would further "lower the lake" below the flood gate inlets.]
Twice of what you saw flowing is 10,000 cfs short of Oroville's specified ES rating of 250,000 cfs. Imagine the hydraulic armageddon of the hillside and undermining of the Weir at the existing Oroville ES design...,
Back to Lake Sinclair...
From your description, the topology of the reservoir indicates that a significant amount of the shoreline dimensions & volume reduction capability occur from a "gate elevation" release perspective (surface area/volume reduction to the elevation of the flood control inlets). The Sinclair Dam flood control gates have the capacity to handle, in your terms, a "biblical outflow" - in matching a combined equivalent inflow. Since you observed just half of the capacity flow (assuming the starting water head elevation was at/near max) of 120,000 cfs, just imagine twice this flow if all 24 gates were opened (I believe your fishing holes -fish- may experience quite a "ride" i.e. become involuntary flying fish).
Northern California may face ‘significant risk’ from Oroville Dam
AN FRANCISCO (AP) —
California is courting a “very significant risk” if a damaged spillway on the nation’s tallest dam is not operational by the next rainy season, and the state’s plan leaves no time for any delays, a team of safety experts has warned in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.....
Water was even seeping from seemingly undamaged stretches of the main spillway, the experts said. Only 12 inches thick, the concrete spillway is heavily patched, at some places by clay stuffed into holes below the concrete.
“This calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced,” the consultants said, raising the prospect of a much bigger long-term repair job.
Fully repairing the spillway will likely take two years, the consultants said. California still has at least a month left in the current, unusually wet rainy season. A record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada will send more and more runoff into Lake Oroville as weather warms.....
http://www.kcra.com/article/heres-what-flying-over-mars-might-look-like/9172131
Northern California may face ‘significant risk’ from Oroville Dam
AN FRANCISCO (AP) —
California is courting a “very significant risk” if a damaged spillway on the nation’s tallest dam is not operational by the next rainy season, and the state’s plan leaves no time for any delays, a team of safety experts has warned in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.....
Water was even seeping from seemingly undamaged stretches of the main spillway, the experts said. Only 12 inches thick, the concrete spillway is heavily patched, at some places by clay stuffed into holes below the concrete.
“This calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced,” the consultants said, raising the prospect of a much bigger long-term repair job.
Fully repairing the spillway will likely take two years, the consultants said. California still has at least a month left in the current, unusually wet rainy season. A record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada will send more and more runoff into Lake Oroville as weather warms.....
http://www.kcra.com/article/heres-what-flying-over-mars-might-look-like/9172131