Taum Sauk levee breaks

LESTERVILLE, Mo. -- A 5-million-ton torrent crashed down Proffit Mountain Wednesday, sweeping away the home of a sleeping state park superintendent and seriously injuring his children.

Nearly 80 percent of the water in the storage basin of AmerenUE's Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Plant drained in a matter of minutes around 5:30 a.m. when a retaining wall burst. The water erased the home of Johnson Shut-Ins State Park superintendent Jerry Toops, stranding him in a tree and carrying his wife and children almost 500 yards before depositing them near a stand of trees.

The names of the wife and children were being withheld. The children, two preschoolers and an infant, were taken to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis for treatment of hypothermia, shock and other injuries.

Gary Maize of the Lesterville Fire District arrived home from work at the Doe Run Resource Recycling around 6 a.m. His fire district pager was already going off.

"My son said, 'Don't even take your coat off,'" Maize said. Within minutes, Maize and other rescue workers were speeding to the scene up Route N northwest of town.

They drove a truck, designed to fight brush fires, about 400 yards into a field, then walked another 400 feet. "I told the guys I was with to stop," Maize said. "I could barely hear a slight groan."

As he shone his flashlight across the field, he saw Toops's wife sitting in the field with the infant in her arms and her son lying across her legs. "We got them up, got them to the truck and she said, 'I have a third child.'"

Approximately 30 feet from where they found the mother, the daughter was found pinned underneath a downed cedar tree.

As the firefighters cared for the Toops family, all five were in shock, Maize said. "The baby was gasping for air. The little boy didn't even blink. He was just staring off into space."

The Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Plant, built in 1963, consists of a lake behind a dam on the Black River and the 1.5 billion gallon storage basin atop Proffit Mountain. Water is pumped from the lake to the storage basin, where it descends through a 7,000-foot tunnel in the mountain to turn electric turbines.

AmerenUE officials believe overflow sensors malfunctioned, allowing too much water to be pumped into the storage area, said Alan Kelley, senior vice president for power generation. As the water flowed over the top of the reservoir, it eroded the earth and rock support berm, fatally weakening it.

Damage to the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir is seen in this aerial photo. (Associated Press)

The water rushed down the hillside in a wall estimated at 10 to 20 feet high, changing directions as it hit a hill just south of the Toops's home. As it surged west, it tore the home from its foundation, lifted pickup trucks parked outside and crested against another hill before washing into a nearby creek.

In the moment before the torrent caught him, truck driver Larry Richards was thinking about railroad ties he was due to pick up.

The road was dry and he was off to an early start. The wall of water struck his Freightliner as he drove south on Route N northwest of Lesterville.

"I was driving down the road and it hit me from the driver's side," said Richards, who was pulling an empty flatbed. "Then I was off in the ditch. That's when I realized there was water all around."

Richards, a driver for McNees Trucking, was one of three motorists caught in the deluge. A pickup truck was also lifted off the road, while a dump truck carrying a load of zinc was inundated but not moved.

Richards' truck floated into a field. He waited for the truck to settle in the water before climbing out the window and onto the roof of the cab.

"There was about a foot and a half of the cab sticking out of the water," he said. "It was pretty much the scariest thing that ever happened to me."

The water receded within 30 minutes, he said. Rescue workers were on the scene within 20 minutes, but they waited for the water to drain before helping him out.

That was fine with him, Richards said. "They knew I wasn't in as much danger as the rest of the people."

As the water ran down the mountainside, it toppled trees and left a muddy mess behind. The lake on the Black River rose abruptly. The National Weather Service broadcast warnings to residents along the river to be ready for a rapid rise of up to 17 feet if the dam failed.

Nearly six hours after the initial failure at the storage basin, chocolate-brown water cascaded over the dam while area residents took in the sight. Bill Nichols, an area farmer, said he had moved tractors and other equipment to higher ground then drove to a spot on Reynolds County Road 204 that overlooks the dam.

The image he saw reassured him. A heavy rain has made the water flow up to 4 feet higher than the dam, he said. "That dam ain't gonna burst."

Macie Barton leaned against her father and watched him as he talked about how his family evacuated their home along the Black River after the reservoir in Lesterville broke. Her father, Tommy Barton, was at work when word came that the reservoir had breached. The family removed furniture and valuables as a precaution in case the lower dam gave way. Their home was not damaged. (Diane L. Wilson)

Other residents along the Black River didn't wait to discover if Nichols was correct. Tommy Barton was on the job at the Doe Run Co. plant in Boss, Mo., when he was told the reservoir burst. He raced home and with family help got his wife, Kelly Barton, their daughter, Macie, and their belongings out of their home along the river.

"I thought that I didn't have a wife and child," Tommy Barton said. "I am 30 miles away. I was wondering what I was going to come home to."

They took refuge at the Lesterville school building, where the American Red Cross and Salvation Army set up a shelter. School was called off for the district shortly after 7 a.m.

By early afternoon, they were ready to return home. "It took me 30 minutes to get it out," Kelly Barton said. "It will take 30 days to get it back in."

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt surveys the damage.

Gov. Matt Blunt held a news conference late in the afternoon at the point where the water crossed Route N. The state will monitor the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigation of the reservoir failure, he said.

AmerenUE will have to accept responsibility for the accident and provide help to the Toops and the state in restoring damage to Johnson Shut-Ins State Park, Blunt said. "We need to determine what happened and they need to be a responsible corporate citizen."

Johnson Shut-Ins is a popular destination during warmer months, attracting campers and hikers eager to visit the natural water park. Officials were thankful the reservoir breach occurred at a time when there were no visitors in the area.

AmerenUE will take steps to take care of the Toops and anyone else hurt by the accident, Kelley said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126