In the early morning hours of December 2005, a remote operator error caused the upper reservoir to Ameren UE's Taum Sauk hydroelectric pumped storage power plant to overtop and eventually breach.

The reservoir sits atop the 1703 foot tall Proffit Mountain and holds 1.5 billion gallons of water. Water is normally released during the day to power two reversible pump-turbine units that could each generate 175 megawatts (235,000 hp) of power at the bottom of the mountain. At night when demand is low, the turbines pump the water back to the upper reservoir.

Johnson's Shut-ins State Park is located below Proffit mountain. A shut-in is an Ozarks term for a river that runs between two closely spaced mountains. When the billion gallons of water hit the shut-ins it created a pressure hose like effect. Fortunately, due to it being the off-season no one was staying at the parks' campgrounds

No one was killed in this incident. The park ranger Jerry Toops, his wife and three children were swept away when the flood obliterated their home but they were found later that morning downstream and sent to local hospitals for their injuries.The park was closed, repaired, and reopened in May 2010.

The upper reservoir was torn down, rebuilt, upgraded, and reopened in April 2010.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org