Equipment Failure Possible Cause of Missouri Dam Breach
A possible pump malfunction may have precipitated a pre-dawn Dec. 14 hydroelectric dam breach and flood near Lesterville, Mo., that injured three people and destroyed at least one home. The plant owner, state and federal authorities are investigating.
The Taum Sauk Reservoir, a 100-ft-high rock-filled, concrete-lined dam covering 55 acres and storing 1.5 billion gallons of water breached at 5:24 a.m. spilling about 1 billion gals of water. A 20-ft-high wave swept down the western side of Proffit Mountain to the Black River and finally into a lower 380-acre storage reservoir, a distance of about two miles. The flood destroyed the home of a park superintendent and injured his three children.