Heavy Rains Forced Opening of Bagnell Dam

The lake area had a lot of rain over the last few days, along with the snow that hit Sunday afternoon. That prompted Ameren to open up Bagnell Dam Friday night. Some areas received as much as four inches of rain. The floodgates were opened up to approximately 50,000 cubic feet per second. That, in turn, caused the Osage River level to rise by as much as seven feet. The discharge levels were gradually reduced starting Saturday evening and were at just over 12,000 cfs as of 5:15 Monday morning.