Views of Table Rock Lake After the Waters Receded
DOUG FAST>>The Branson floods of May 2011 are just about taken care of and all the businesses are just about back open. Just to alleviate anybody’s concerns. Here’s Table Rock Dam and of course they’re generate just about 11,400 cubic feet.
If you notice, the Corps of Engineers are releasing just about 11,400 cubic feet per second. In comparison, 100,000 cubic feet per second go over Niagra Falls. May 4th, of course, at 7 am – if you can notice those 10 floodgates there – were open 4 feet each. It allowed a water flow coming through at about 68,000 cubic feet per second. Beginning at 8:00 that morning they were closed a foot every hour until about 11:00 when 5 of the flood gates were shut entirely. Before this event the previous high for Table Rock spill had been 48,000 feet per second back in 2008. Current level here at the headwaters of Taneycomo is 701 feet. At the Tanecomo trail, which is 22 miles all the way downstream, the water level is only 693. So it’s coming down, we’re back in business, come back to Branson!
Table Rock Dam had no real damage other than a little bit of mudslide on the road going across the dam which they are fixing up now and replacing back to normal. They say it will be back to normal in just about two weeks.
As you can probably see the lake’s not up that much more than it normally is. One thing about it is that in a few weeks, Branson Missouri is going to be green, green, green! So we’re open, come on down, take a look and have some fun. Stay at the Majestic when you’re on Table Rock Lake, it’s a great place and they’ve got boat docks which are all open by the way. The Table Rock Lake floods of 2011 are pretty much a thing of the past but we’re gonna see some more stuff in this little interview/video.
We’re down a couple miles maybe just a mile from Table Rock Dam; we’re at Pointe Royale subdivision. This is where we’ve had a few of the homes not really damaged, we’ve got some water inside of them. Andy Williams’ home was one of them–Andy Williams, that’s his house right there. And it looks like the water has pretty much gone back down to normal.
Now we’re headed on 65 South towards Harrison, AR, College of the Ozarks, Branson Creek, Murder Rock, showing you the way to get to Table Rock State Park, Dixe – not Dixie Stampede, but Showboat Branson Belle, we’re headed that way. It’s a little bit out of the way. The only thing closed is the road across Table Rock Dam which is of course the easy access to everything on that side of Table Rock Lake.
Right now we’re coming up to the traffic relief route to get to 76 using 265. This is the easy way around to get to the State Park Marina, to the Showboat Branson Belle. You can follow the signs and get there from here.
The lake is still up a little bit down at the end by State Park Marina off of 165. This is a pretty good area where everybody puts in. The water is typically – you’ve probably got 50 foot from where normal levels are that you can get to the pavement, anyway. But this area here like I said is up, but you can still put your boat in though! If we walk right around the corner here you can see where they’ve got an electric area and from the looks of it, they had it sandbagged up pretty good. Most of them have been taken down because there’s no issue with it now but you can see how high the water was during the day at the Table Rock Flood in Branson, Missouri.
We’re going to drive down this road a little bit – this is the area that us in Branson call Poverty Point. Of course when you own a lot out here I guess it puts you in poverty! But you can see from the highway signs they probably had the roads closed but now they’re wide open, just like Branson. Floods, they’ll get you down…but we’re resiliant here in Branson!
I’d say the water got up a little bit! You can see there are still some dock owners that have to have a little life raft or they can swim out to get their boat. Far across on the other side of the cove is State Park Marina, we’re headed there next. Talk about lakefront!
Now we’re pulling into State Park Marina, we’re going to see what happened down here. Looks to me like they’re open for business!
Here’s just a group of docks. Water’s still up, but it looks like they’re getting everyone to the docks.
Here’s Dock C at Table Rock State Park.
So here we are at Table Rock State Park. This is pretty much where everybody docks their boat if you own one and you’re lucky enough to get a slip down here in Branson on Table Rock Lake. You can see the water’s still up pretty substantially although business as usual–you can get right to the dock, you can go rent a boat dock down here, you can get right to the dock, rent a boat, rent a pontoon, they’ll even take you on a catamaran tour. Where I’m walking now you can see it’s still a little green from the water. And if you’ve got a boat parked on one of those slips they’ll shuttle you to it.
We’re going to pull into the Showboat Branson Belle. They’re open for business and it looks like they’ve got a half full parking lot.
And the water is up pretty far.
So here we are at Dewey Short Visitor Center. And in spite of the recent record setting floods of May 2011 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, the builders are still hard at work constructing the new Dewey Short Visitors Center. The site was 2 and a half feet above the encroaching flood waters. The project still remains on schedule. The building is beginning to take shape as walls rise above the shoreline. They have 90% poured concrete, and I don’t think the floods ever going to get that tall. It’s going to be open soon, you have to get out here and see it!
Now we’re headed back to Branson. We’re going to go down the Branson Landing and I’m going to show you it’s wide open.
So now we’re at the lookout off of 165. Pointe Royale is just right down below and you can see where we were at at Andy Williams’ House. Everything seems to be up, looks like the likes up maybe 10 to 15 feet. They’re back to normal there. What a view that is! That never gets old. It’s scenic!
So that’s our video for today. The floods in Branson, Table Rock Lake overflowing, the dam has no problems, and Branson’s open for business. Within the next couple days I’ll get down to the Branson Landing and show you what’s going on down there, so stay tuned!
