Phil Lilley

Stump- your comment about lake levels rising for 5 days before generation started isn't quite accurate. Check the chart. Table Rock's level hovered around 915 for quite a while. It started raining on Thursday. They started generating on Friday, not full but they did start. They went to full generation when the level hit 917. In 08, the Corp got alot of criticism because they're stance was not to anticipate heavy rainfall but to react to it, wait till it fell and then adjust. That killed them in 08. I don't think they announced a change of policy but they did and you can tell by looking at what they do now. They do anticipate and react quicker and ealier than they did prior to 08's flood. Now is it quick enough? Probably not in everyone's book and especially when you have the ability to look back - hindsight. Now my neighbor is mad at them because he thinks they should have been able to tell exactly what they were going to run ahead of time and let us know well in advance... My other neighbor is just mad at what the Corp has done to his business. I think the Corp did what it had to do and I don't think they could have improved the timing or adjustments much. Sure they can tweak it and may be do better next time but it's a guessing game for the most part. ONE THING I will say about this flood--- the one time I called and talked to someone at the Table Rock Corp office, he said that they (the Corp) was communicating with the public through the media. NOT GOOD! Those of us on the shores are not listening to the media- not watching TV or listening to the radio. We're out moving docks, shoring up cables, calling guests and dealing with guests at the lodge... In 08, a PERSON from the city or county came around and talked to us personally each time there was a major move in water release. In 11, the first major release we heard about by rumor, the possibility of a huge release we were told in person from a Branson official but he didn't tell everyone on the block. There should be a good chain of communication developed for just water releases- email, texts, phone calls, personal contact. There was a recorded phone call we got about 12 times the first day saying the water was rising but no details and it was the same message over and over. Could have been from the city of Branson, not sure. Now when things got really hairy, both a Branson official from the fire department and one of our county commissioners came down in person to brief us. I think it just took a while to get the chain of communication going. Over all if was good by the local folk.

I thought about that... an image of the 08 event. Glad you saved and posted it. I too have saved it. Thanks

Future rain is the key... Got to understand- there's a big difference in water volume at 933 and 935 feet (08 and 11 levels). It's going to take a while to get back to 930 and that's just the beginning of the drop. I'm sure the ultimate target level at Table Rock is 920.

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They'll hold BS as long as they can and then they'll have to let it go. You can look at the BS chart and rate the rise and probably get pretty close as to when it will fill up, taking in account that the inflow will decrease some next week. Enjoy the low water while you can!

Good posts. I agree with you BtF.

It's incredible that just 90 minutes away, there's fishable... no good! fishable water. Keep talking up the fishing on Stockton. People need to hear good fishing reports on the forum now that so many places are flooded and non fishable. Thanks!

Thanks for posting. I was wondering what the PR access looked like. I bet you anything a person could catch some crappie there at the boat ramp! Seriously! Slide a boat in and fish the cove.

Wish I could post this on both Table Rock and Taneycomo forum but... this will have to do. KY3 even got this wrong. Table Rock Dam's flood gates can open up to 30 feet. I believe but may be wrong but they have them open 5 or 7 feet right now. I'll find out tomorrow. So the 10 gates can move that much more water WITHOUT opening the auxiliary gates. Would they open the auxiliary gates BEFORE opening all 10 gate wide open? NO! Why would they destroy the hatchery and highway needlessly when they still have room to move water through the 10 gates? KY3 reported that IF Table Rock had risen to 938, they would have opened the auxiliary gates. Maybe so... but to rise 2.58 more feet (over 935.42 feet where it crested), it would mean they had NOT opened the 10 gates enough and allowed the lake to rise to that level. The ONLY way that would happen is if someone highjacked the control room, force the lake to rise to 938 and then opened the auxiliary gates, just to see if they worked. The auxiliary gates were ONLY built to protect the earthen dam at Table Rock IF Beaver Dam failed - in my opinion. And I think that's a good reason.

Wanted to bring this to your attention. Brian or Justin haven't been on the forum- Brian since yesterday afternoon and Justin in a few days. If anyone has any word on how their places fared in high water, please let us know.

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Table Rock Lake has crested at 935.47 and is now holding and dropping a bit. They did not have to increase the flow- kept it at 68,000 cfs- that's where it's been since last night. We'll have this flow until Sunday we are told. They want to get Table Rock back down 930 feet. Flood gates will be open I'd say for at least 7-14 days though they will decrease the flow as the lakes drop. We have alot of images and video to process and post. Will take some time. Right now we're starting to search for our stuff... it's here and there in storage and in vehicles. Talked to a city official that said quite a few docks have gone over Powersite Dam. Others are dotted along the bank from Branson to Powersite that have broken away and are lodged, stuck. I don't think, I know, the average Joe has no idea what kind of water we're talking about here. Even those who come by and see it... this is incredible.

Correction on the Fish House. I spoke with with BP and they said the building is held by huge stiff arms and not so much by the pylons. They are worried, though, about another 3 foot rise and the structure binding and bending and structure. We've gotten a little rain this morning as well as south and west of here. We'll see if it pushes us over into releasing more water.

The courteous dock at Bass Pro broke loose late yesterday and drifted into the Fish House. This am it's gone - the c-dock. The Corp at 10 am decided to hold flows where they are for now and wait to see how much rain the area gets this morning. They don't want to increase it to 80,000 cfs if they don't have to. One BIG reason is the Fish House. It's at the top of the pylons- the upright pipes that are in the ground that the place secured with. The floating restaurant rides up and down on the pylons with the water. Problem is it's at the top of the pipe. If it goes higher, the Fish House will be loose and float downstream. This could, IMO, compromise Powersite Dam if it got that far. If it did go, and it very well may, I'd think they could push it up in Bull Creek or somewhere out of the current and secure it. I'm sure they have a plan in place. Pretty incredible stuff... Yea- the media isn't covering this in the bigger cities. We're still getting calls from ppl in St Louis wanting to come down and fish this weekend.

Had to edit TR levels...

I haven't been on the lake or anywhere in the area except here for the last 24+ hours so I can't report on what's going on anywhere but here. They are running 68,000 cfs at Table Rock and has been holding there since about 8 pm yesterday. Table Rock is at 935.03 at 7 am this morning and holding. This is very good news for us. That means it looks like they've got both Beaver and TR under control and we won't see higher water. We have water- about a foot, in 3 lower units here at the resort. Our dock has been hold on by a few cables and additional cables we attached last night. All 3 ramps are broken and the dock is close to the bank and shifted downstream about 80 feet. If has not drifted into the downstream neighbor's dock. We've seen several docks go downstream and dozens of trees. When they told us yesterday am we'd see 80,000 cfs, we though that would compromise the whole resort and all the structures so we evacuate and removed as much stuff from the office and units as we could. Now we know 80k cfs would not cover the upper structures and if this is the highest it will go, we'll start moving back in today. We're probably looking at 1-3 days of this flow with many more days of flood gates and without more rain, which I think is in the forecast. We are SOOO blessed to be here and to have so many friends who have come down to help yesterday. We had a hard time managing all the people. Church Army, a church here in town, sent dozens of workers down- we are grateful! I won't be on the forum today for obvious reasons, nor am I going to have time to read any posts this morning. I'd imagine you have good info from the media as to what is going on on TR and Beaver as well as Bull Shoals. I hope to get on the lake and see what things looks like, esp upstream later today or tomorrow. "Is God God or isn't He?" That's what I posted on facebook this morning. Someone said it yesterday and it rang in my heart all day. We can truly and wholeheartedly know He is no matter what anyone believes, He is. Nothing changes that, He is what He is and He is not what we make Him out to be. I accept that by faith and that faith has grown even stronger in these days. I praise Him this morning and am looking forward in what He will do today.

Those levels are not up to date. TR is at 930, not 922.

Looking at the lake levels - Table Rock and Beaver - neither are leveling off and both are at the top of flood pool. They are releasing 48,500 cfs at Table Rock as far as I can tell- comparing this level with the level back in 2008. I look for them to increase flows at both dams shortly. Not sure where that will leave us or many other places on the lake. Our main concern is our dock. As soon as it gets daylight, we'll probably move our boats out of the dock and beach them down at dad's house.

Looks like we're at the 2008 water levels and current. 48,500 cfs through Table Rock Dam. If what the Corp told me yesterday is correct, Beaver is releasing the same cfs. Noted the White River level rose sufficiently yesterday late to 130,000 cfs. I wonder if that was a record. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=07048600 Table Rock is still below 930 which is a real good thing. With a break in rainfall, hopefully they can curve the level downward before it starts raining again.

In light of all that's going on here, I have not kept up with any threads on the forum although I suspected this one was probably getting out of hand. Developed a bad dizzy spell mid afternoon yesterday that put me down at 9 pm. Not going to close the thread but I ask respectively that it end. Again I'm not going to be reading for a while- I have too many other things on my plate right now. Thanks

A small slide on the northeast side of the earthen dam has Corp and Highway officials worried about the road structure. Right now, they are confident in the structure of the dam itself. We are packing some things... just in case.

A little video I put together of my boat ride this morning. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/96xNRRtZwPs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Bull Shoals isn't getting hit as hard as TR, Taneycomo and Beaver- at least runoff from tributaries. They will, though, get alot of water from and through Taney. Not sure if they're going to hold it or release it.

Talked with the Corp. Table Rock is matching what Beaver is running at their facillity. At 2 pm, both Table Rock and Beaver started dumping. They got up to 30,000 cfs and immediately increased to 37,000 cfs. At Table Rock, 4 full units is 15,000 cfs- to give you an idea. Corp also said they'd make another adjustment before dark. They want to make small adjustments and not major ones. Bottom line- no one knows how much they are going to release. Record release was in 2008 at Table Rock - 48,500 cfs. I did hear (and I've heard alot of wild rumors today that were not true) that Table Rock may crest at 931.

Beaver is reportedly releasing 30,000 cfs with gates and now Table Rock is releasing 30,000 cfs with gates.