Corps Still Managing Flow After Record Setting Oklahoma Rains

The Corps of Engineers is still managing flow as the water drains from Oklahoma.

The Corps is holding back some water to reduce flooding and still releasing at some lakes to make room in the reservoir.

The gates are closed at Lake Keystone; the only water going through is for power generation, and that's to not add any more water far downstream.

The Corps said their dams held back all they could, but that wasn't enough for the rain we had.

After a week of record flows through Corps of Engineers’ lakes and dams, the water levels are balancing out as the Corps tries to cut back on flooding and get lakes down to normal so they have room for the next rainstorm.

Hydraulic engineer, Micah Buccholz said, "We're holding a lot of water back on two river systems - the Verdigris and the Keystone/Upper Arkansas - to get those reservoirs in southern Oklahoma and the Grand system, to try and to get that water down."

That's why the gates at Keystone are closed, to make room downstream while the gates are open at other projects like Lake Tenkiller.

The flow there is spectacular enough to have gained a lot of attention on social media, but after several days, it's still just draining off the floodwaters.

At places like Chouteau Bend, where flooding from the Grand River left substantial damage, the Corps said it had to release the water because there wasn't room in Grand Lake to hold it back.

1/1/2016 Related Story: Chouteau Bend Recreation Area Drying Out After Historic Rains

That led to record releases at Pensacola Dam and flooding downstream.

Buccholz said, "Even though there was flooding downstream, it would have been worse if those dams weren't there."

He said, even though the after Christmas forecast was for heavy rain, they couldn't drop lake levels before the rain fell.

"We will never release water on a prediction. We release water based on what's on the ground and in the system," Buccholz said.

The Corps predicts it will take at least six weeks, possibly as long as two months, for lake levels to get back to normal.

Keystone is still 14 feet above normal, but still has plenty of room to hold back water.