SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri reservoir lakes are brimming with flood waters from heavy June rains, a change from drought levels last summer but also a potential hazard for boaters due to debris.
Tammy Gilmore, natural resource manager at Truman Lake, is warning people against water skiing or zipping around on personal watercraft.
At 24 feet above normal, the lake is a minefield of submerged trees and bobbing obstacles.
"There's a lot of underwater hazards and floating debris," said Gilmore. "We put out a notice last week that skiing, tubing and Jet-skiing aren't recommended. They still do it, and we can't stop them, but it's not recommended."
Torrential rains last month soaked eastern Kansas and bordering areas of Missouri, pouring more than 15 inches in five days on some communities.
Now, some of those floodwaters are flowing into Missouri's flood-control reservoirs.
That makes this summer a far cry from last, when severe drought sapped many lakes and left some boat ramps high and dry.
At Truman Lake, seven swimming beaches and all but two campsites are closed because they're under water.
At Lake of the Ozarks, 11 of 12 floodgates at Bagnell Dam are open, dumping 50,000 cubic feet of water a second into the Osage River.
This time last year, only 500 cubic feet of water a second were being released, just enough to keep the fish in the river below and federal stream-flow monitors happy.
At Pomme de Terre Lake, the water level was 7 1/2 feet above normal. The high water closed two state park sand beaches and two campground areas, but many other campsites remain open.
Stockton Lake is more than 13 feet higher than it was last July, and parts of at least three campsites have been inundated.
Big rains have swelled Table Rock Lake about two feet above normal, according to lake manager Greg Oller.
No campgrounds are flooded, and the extra water has allowed the hydroelectric turbines at the dam to churn out power 10 hours a day.
---
Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.