Taum Sauk Disaster in Missouri Was a Decade Ago

A decade after the collapse of the Taum Sauk reservoir in southeast Missouri, the director of Missouri State Parks says the landscape is healing.

A massive wall of water poured down Proffit Mountain on Dec. 14, 2005, when a 700-foot section of the Taum Sauk dam gave way. Fortunately, the campground below the mountain had no visitors. The park ranger, his wife and their three children were injured but recovered.

State Parks director Bill Bryan told KMOX Radio that the water scoured the land, taking everything with it, but a decade later, restoration is evident. Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park opened again in 2010.

Ameren Missouri, Taum Sauk's owner, paid $50 million to help restore the area.