With Teen Stranded On A Shrinking Island In The Osage River, Ameren & Firefighters Took Dramatic Action

LAKE OZARK, Mo. — On Monday, June 19, a teen became stranded on an island in the Osage River. With the river level low, the teen had driven a UTV out onto an island. But his timing was bad: Ameren suddenly began releasing a large amount of water from Bagnell Dam, not too far upstream, and the water level quickly began to rise.

Lake Ozark Firefighter Caleb Freese has been a firefighter at Lake Ozark for 17 years and been in the fire service for 23 years. He was part of the Lake Ozark Fire Protection District (LOFPD) rescue team that rescued the teen who was stranded on Bell Island.

Freese said the teen called 911 asking for help. They called Ameren to let them know of the situation.

Ameren responded quickly, shutting off the flow of water, down to a relative trickle. After they had just increased the flow to more than 16,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), Ameren water level reports reveal the water flow was dramatically reduced over the next two hours.

Here's Ameren's hourly report from that day:

- 12 p.m. : 1,076.65 (cfs)

- 1 p.m. : 16,407.51 (cfs)

- 2 p.m. : 1,307.40 (cfs)

- 3 p.m. : 680.61 (cfs) (responded to rescue)

When they arrived on the scene, rescuers deployed their boats, as the water level hadn't dropped enough yet. Caleb recalled, "We had to launch our boat at a nearby ramp, but the water was shallow in spots and we had to get off the boat and get into the water to maneuver the boat to get to the teen. We didn't want to ruin our prop (propeller) on the boat. When we got to him, he was uninjured and was very calm but was wearing a brace on his knee... we took him to his parents that were at a nearby campsite."

While his crew was finding a way to relocate the UTV, Caleb said, "The teen's dad was a big help in helping navigate the UTV out of the water."

The water flow rate through Bagnell Dam varies widely: flows had generally been hovering around the 1,000 cfs mark for the past month, amid a worsening drought. Not infrequently, flows will jump up above 10,000 cfs, and during heavy rains, the dam is capable of flowing approximately 40,000 cfs through the generators alone, without even opening the floodgates. But over the past two months, Ameren has never reported the flow reaching as low as 680.61 (cfs).

Working with emergency responders, Ameren's decision to bring the Osage River down to a (relative) trickle helped save the stranded teen.