LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — Truman Lake took the brunt of the heavy flooding in late June and early July, as Ameren and the Army Corps of Engineers took drastic measures to save homes and businesses along the Lake of the Ozarks shoreline.
With days of heavy rains on the heels of an already soggy summer, the Lake of the Ozarks rose more than two feet above full pool at its worst, leaving major damage in its wake. The floodgates were opened, and Truman Dam was closed, as Ameren and the Army scrambled to drop the water level. In the meantime, Truman Lake rose to more than 16 feet above its normal level of 706 feet elevation.
As the Lake of the Ozarks normalized, the Truman Dam floodgates were reopened on July 11, and the lake has slowly begun to return to its normal levels. But there’s a long way to go.
As of July 29, Truman Lake was at 714.92 feet — still nearly 13 feet above its normal level. Generators were at their maximum capacity of 27,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), and the floodgates were flowing about 250 cubic feet per second—or about 1,870 gallons per second.
The Lake of the Ozarks was at 658.82, at 6 p.m. on July 29. Full pool is 660 feet. Ameren is still releasing a significant amount of water through the dam, with the flow on Wednesday ranging from 27,000 to 37,000 cfs, but that amount of flow is sustainable by using the turbines, which can handle about 40,000 cfs. The Bagnell Dam floodgates were closed on July 21.
