Norfork lake Arkansas Near Mountain Home in the ozarks Mountains Region Lake Condition by Scuba Steve from Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental.

The lake level is 578 and is two feet from going over the spillway and has risen 2.8 feet in the last 24-hours with no generation since 6:PM last evening. Bryant Creek at Tecumseh is 9.32 feet and has crested again for now but a lot of water is heading into the Norfork River. It is raining with more to come. Beaver lake was almost breaching their spillway so they just opened up the spillway gates to keep that from happening and so the chain reaction begins, with this water going into Table Rock and Taneycomo. Taneycomo is fed by the discharge from the Table Rock Dam and does not have much surge capacity.  Table Rock cannot hold nearly as much water as Bull even though they are about the same size acres wise.  Dam Management 101 includes a rule " do not allow water to go over the dam" or damage will occur. The damn managers should have attended that class. Norfork is two feet from breaching so it will be next. The White River at Newport is 23 feet with minor flood stage at 26-feet so there is not much room. Bull Shoals can hold a lot of water, especially at this level, and is 6-feet from the top. It will be the last hope. It is the big Kahuna. When they open Bull Shoals spillway gates everyone is in trouble. I am not saying that will happen but I am saying Norfork will happen. The last time they held too long like this was in 2008 when they opened up Norfork gates when 582 water was heading to the dam and they panicked. When is was over they found some Norfork River Trout docks in Calico Rock on the White River. When the White gets too high it backs up into the Norfork and floods out River Ridge Road near the town of Norfork. It is devastating to the River Trout Docks.  None of these options are good. The answer is to not get into this situation not to blame Mother Nature year after year. You can still stay at Blackburns Resort and Boat Rental, drive to the dock, park, and step on but we no longer have launching here. You have to go to Panther Bay a couple of miles away and drive your boat to our dock. Many resorts do not have their own launching anyway. We do 95% of the time. The big pool is open and people are catching fish. The sun will shine eventually.