Mark Twain Lake gets back to normal

ST. LOUIS (AP) — As far as Dennis Gill is concerned, it's been one thing after another this year at Mark Twain Lake.

First, gas prices rocketed just as the summer travel season got going. Memorial Day weekend was cold. Then came the heavy rains, said Gill, who runs the Timber Ridge Resort and is vice president of the Mark Twain Lake Chamber of Commerce.

Last month, things went from bad to worse. Massive rains in northern Missouri — 12 inches in some spots — caused a torrent of water to flow into the lake. Normal pool is 606 feet above sea level. By late July, the lake was at a record 640 feet, forcing the Corps of Engineers to release water downstream into the Salt River. No one was hurt but nearly three dozen homes and businesses were flooded.

The unusually high water at the lake flooded campgrounds and recreation areas and forced authorities to prohibit boating, fishing and camping for several days.

"I'd guess business around the lake is down 20 percent this year," Gill said Wednesday. "It (the flood) pretty much took three weeks out of our season. School starts now and last week was really the last good week of the vacation season for us."

The good news, lake officials and merchants said, is that things are slowly getting back to normal. The 18,600-acre lake — about 120 miles northwest of St. Louis — is open again to boaters and fishermen. Campgrounds are open, as are most recreation areas. Beaches remain closed and some facilities — especially restrooms — sustained damage from flooding.

By Wednesday afternoon, the lake level had dropped to 618 feet, within the normal range, park ranger Mary Anne Heitmeyer said.

"We're getting there," Heitmeyer said. "There are still a few areas closed while we clean up. But major facilities are all open."

The corps opened Mark Twain Lake in the 1980s and it serves multiple purposes. It offers recreation, provides a source for hydroelectricity produced at a power plant at Clarence Cannon Dam, and is designed to prevent flooding in the Salt River below the lake and even in the Mississippi River, where the Salt River eventually ends up.

But the extraordinary amount of water in July left the corps with no choice but to release massive amounts of water into the Salt River. "When your storage space runs out, you have to release water," Heitmeyer said.

Mark Twain Lake lacks the commercial development of Lake of the Ozarks and some other big lakes in Missouri but is especially popular among hunters, fishermen and campers.

More than 2 million people visit the lake every year, a high percentage of them from the St. Louis area that sits less than two hours away. Gill said the lake also draws heavily from northeast Missouri, western Illinois and southern Iowa.

"I guess we're kind of hoping for a good fall because there's usually good fishing after a high-water event," Gill said.

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On the Net:

Mark Twain Lake: www.marktwainlake.com

Lake elevation levels: http://mvs-wc.mvs.usace.army.mil/trans/gages.html

Mark Twain Lake Chamber of Commerce: http://www.visitmarktwainlake.org