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Taum Sauk Reservoir Photos USGS-UMR Research Team Investigate Impoundment FailureUpdate 12-23-2005 | Photos
The events of early Wednesday morning near Lesterville, Missouri were not
nearly the scope of destruction resulting from the past hurricane season;
nevertheless, a tragedy and certainly one of local significance. On the
morning of December 14, sometime after 5:00 am the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir
failed, allowing nearly 1.5 billion gallons of water to careen down a small
creek on the northwest side of Proffit Mountain towards the Black River
valley and Johnson Shut-Ins State Park. The mechanism for failure is under
investigation, but what can be determined from distant observation is that
water spilled over the sides of the impoundment possibly causing erosion
of the outer embankment. This may have weakened one segment of the structure
to the point of catastrophic failure. A team of USGS and UMR scientists and engineers from the Natural Hazard Mitigation Institute visited the site on December 15th to conduct a forensic analysis of the failure and to map the affected area. While the power company that owned the impoundment would not allow most of the team access to the location of the failure, the team did obtain permission to access the affected area down gradient through Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. What the team saw brought back memories of their recent work in New Orleans and the Louisiana Peninsula. The destruction at the site was incredible. All of the trees in the path of the flowing water were stripped off the earth's surface. What remained were large rocks and exposed bedrock surfaces. The flowing water removed soil from the valley floor, and created large scour holes. The large flowing debris piles created by downed trees came to rest throughout the park and up against the downstream side of the highway N bridge over the Black River. The USGS stream gage located on that bridge was damaged by the debris flow about the time the water moved through providing an approximate time of when this event unfolded. While the Johnson's Shut-Ins Park State Park received the most damage, private property located northwest of the Park became a debris field for trees and the Park Superintendent's home destroyed by the flowing water. Most of the team had limited access to the site, but they were able to collect high water data from the perimeter of the State Park and the lower flow path below the breach. One member of our team accompanied a Missouri Department of Natural Resources team that visited the breach site with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and AmerenUE personnel. Our data will be used with other data that will be collected by various agencies and the power company in the future to analyze the failure and its impacts. As a service to the public, images collected during this preliminary investigation have been posted at a reduced resolution on this site. All images shown here were taken by our team who had obtained permission from the land owners, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and AmerenUE to enter the affected area. Permission was granted so our team could do engineering and scientific studies to help learn and analyze the extent of the damage and how to mitigate future disasters. Much of the data our team collects is time sensitive and perishable; therefore, the need for field data collection is very soon after an event occurs. Due to safety concerns, both the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and AmerenUE have closed the area to the public. Only individuals with official capacity and working in the interest of science and remediation will be allowed, by permission, to enter the site. The USGS Mid-Continent Geographic Science Center and the University of Missouri Natural Hazard Mitigation Institute ask that you observe the closure requirement and satisfy your curiosity by continuing to visit this web site. Our goal is to place images and maps on this site as they become available. Emitt C. Witt III, P.H. Director, Mid-Continent Geographic Science Center Taum Sauk Reservoir PhotosAerial photographsLow altitude oblique aerial photographs of upper and lower Taum Sauk reservoirs, East Fork Black River, Johnson Shut-Ins State Park, and the Proffit Mountain flow path taken Thursday, December 15 2005. Johnson Shut-Ins Photographs of Johnson Shut-Ins State Park and the Proffit Mountain flow path taken Thursday, December 15, 2005. Proffit Mountain flow path Photographs of the Proffit Mountain flow path taken Sunday, December 18, 2005. Preliminary geospatial data Preliminary geospatial data collected following the failure of the upper Taum Sauk reservoir. Download full resolution images of the affected area:
Upper Reservoir Photographs of the upper Taum Sauk reservoir taken Thursday December 15, 2005. |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://mcgsc.usgs.gov/taum_sauk_reservoir_photos122005.html
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Page Last Modified: Monday, 17-Dec-2007 15:23:09 EST
