LESTERVILLE, Mo. -- About a billion gallons of water poured through a breached dam at a remote reservoir for the Taum Sauk Lake Hydroelectric Plant early Wednesday, critically injuring three children.  It washed away at least two homes and several vehicles and closed state highways, county roads and Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.  The 90-foot deep reservoir was nearly emptied within minutes.

   Crews rescued a family of five from Superintendent Jerry Toops' house at the state park, which is at the foot of a mountain below the hydroelectric plant.  Gov. Matt Blunt, who went to the area "to personally oversee the state's response," said three children in Toops' family went to a hospital in St. Louis.  The Department of Natural Resources closed the park indefinitely.

  A spokesman for Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, Bob Davidson, said a 7-month-old child suffered from hypothermia, and a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old had breathing problems.  Toops and his wife also were injured but were treated and released at a nearby hospital and went to St. Louis to be with their children.

    Crews searched for others possibly trapped in flooded cars after the breach about 5:30 a.m.  One person was listed as missing for a while but was found.  National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pedigo said a house, a mobile home, several cars and a tractor-trailer were reported washed away.

  Emergency response agencies said conditions along the Black River were dangerous for a time.  The plant is about 140 miles east of Springfield near Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, which has the highest point in Missouri.  Several tributaries form the Black River at Lesterville and the river runs south to Clearwater Lake in southeastern Reynolds County near Piedmont.

   "The Lesterville area and areas south along the Black River are in extreme peril,” said Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Marty Elmore, a spokesman for Troop G in Willow Springs, early Wednesday.

  The tiny unincorporated town of Lesterville was evacuated until around noon when the water in the river was back to normal levels.

  Pedigo said rain was not a factor in the break.  The region received only about one-tenth of an inch of rain overnight, he said. 

   AmerenUE, the utility company based in St. Louis, at first thought the reservoir was at normal level when its wall broke but later said two sets of instruments failed to tell remote operators that the lake was full, allowing water to go over the top of the wall and cause the 600-foot-wide breach.

   The breach is at the northwest corner of the reservoir, which held 1.5 billion gallons of water.  The water roared down the hill to the state park, knocking the superintendent's house off its foundation and damaging parking and camping areas.  The water then went into the East Fork of the Black River.

   The plant has four chief features -- the upper reservoir atop 1,590-foot-high Proffit Mountain, a 7,000-foot-long shaft and tunnel inside the mountain, a powerhouse with two reversible pump turbine units and a lower reservoir formed by a dam across the East Fork of the Black River.  The lower reservoir is 800 feet below the upper reservoir.  During times of peak demand for electricity, water released from the upper reservoir rushes down the shaft and through the tunnel.  As it passes through the powerhouse, the water spins the turbines to generate electricity, then is retained in the lower reservoir.  When demand for power is low, the same turbines run in reverse and pump water back to the upper reservoir.

    The breach occurred at the upper reservoir.  During late morning, according to the National Weather Service, one to two feet of water was pouring over the dam of the lower lake, which covers about 300 acres, as the water that went down the mountain flowed into the lower lake.  The Weather Service said the flood crest on the Black River near Highway K, between Lesterville and Clearwater Lake, was around 12 feet.  Flood stage there is 8 feet.   If the lower dam had not held, the flood crest could have been around 20 feet.

   "A number of AmerenUE engineers and specialists are investigating the incident; clearly, public safety is our top concern," said plant superintendent Rick Cooper.

   The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also will investigate the break.

   The reservoir sits near the New Madrid Fault Line, which often generates small earthquakes.  There was no seismic activity on Wednesday morning.

    The governor ordered several state agencies, including the Missouri National Guard, to provide assistance and relief for those affected by the flood.  The American Red Cross and Salvation Army also sent volunteers and staff members to Reynolds County to set up shelter and feeding operations for evacuated citizens. 

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AmerenUE

Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park