A 600-foot breach in the dam that holds the Taum Sauk Lake Hydroelectric Plant in Missouri released 1.5 billion gallons of water late last week into a nearby home, washing away a family of five.
The wall of water overwhelmed the east fork of the Black River and the lower grounds of Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park located about 125 miles southwest of St. Louis.
It obliterated the home of park superintendent Jerry Toops and swept him, his wife, Lisa, and their three small children at least a quarter-mile away into the flooded and cold darkness. Local firefighters from the nearby town of Lesterville called their rescue a miracle. No other injuries were reported.
The three Toops children were all hospitalized at Cardinal Glennon Hospital for Children in St. Louis. Beth Cross, Cardinal Glennon Hospital spokesperson reported that on Monday, December 19th both Tara (3 years old) and Tucker (7 months old) were released. Tanner (5 years old) remains hospitalized. Tanner's condition has been upgraded from "critical" to "serious".
Authorities are trying to figure out what caused the reservoir to rupture. Utility company officials suggested that pump instruments might have failed and caused the reservoir basin to overflow. When water ran over the top, it eroded the outside wall and caused it to loosen and then fail.
Built in 1963, AmerenUE's Taum Sauk is a pump-storage hydroelectric plant. It stores water from the Black River in the upper reservoir, built atop 1,590 foot-high Proffit Mountain, and releases the water to generate electricity when power is needed.
The water flows down a mile-long tunnel inside the mountain, turning turbine-generators to produce electricity. When power demand is low, the same turbines run in reverse to pump water back to the upper reservoir.
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