Beaver -- A bridge under troubled water.

  It was an unprecedented event. Nobody expected it to happen, least of all the people who ultimately pulled the plug that released the waters.

  The sudden flooding on the White River below Beaver Dam last Thursday night left widespread devastation in its wake -- about 40 homes were flooded when the Corps of Engineers opened the flood gates to 9 1/2 ft., releasing 700,000 gallons of water per second, to prevent the dam overflowing.

  According to Beaver Lake Project Manager Sean Harper, however, at a certain point, the Corps had no choice but to do what they did.

  "There was absolutely no expectation this would happen," Harper said. "It was a terrible situation that normally doesn't occur. It has never happened before."

Corps vigilant early on

  Harper said by early Thursday morning the Corps was already monitoring the situation closely and started releasing water through the flood gates at 6:45 a.m.

  He said by noon, opening the gates to three feet was deemed sufficient given the runoff the lake was receiving.

  "At every gate change we notified everyone of the change in status," Harper said.

  The gates were opened further to 4.5 ft. in mid-afternoon, but it wasn't until 7 p.m. that the situation became clearly problematic.

  It was then the Corps went into emergency mode, with calls being made to residents below the dam, Carroll County sheriff's deputies going door-to-door, and U.S. Forest Service rangers clearing the camp grounds along the path of the river.

  "The worst flooding was immediately below the dam, so we started there and worked our way downstream," Harper said.

Corps answered phones all night

  Despite some claims the Corps stopped answering its phones after 7 p.m., Harper said this was not the case.

  "Our phones rang off the hook," Harper said. "The Table Rock power house and Beaver Lake project office took calls all night. Possibly they couldn't get through, but it wasn't because we took the phone off the hook."

When it's full, it's full

  What many people do not understand, Harper said, is that once the lake storage capacity is filled, every drop of water entering Beaver Lake must exit the lake at the other end.

  "Due to the fact we had four rain events in the past three weeks, the inflow of water continued to increase at an unprecedented, unexpected rate," Harper said. "The lake reached a record elevation of 1,132.21 feet [above sea level], and so the flood gates were opened to 9 1/2 ft., to get the level back down. They had never been opened that high before."

Above the flood plain?

  Several residents affected by the flood said they had been under the impression their houses were "above the flood plain," out of danger from the river.

  "There is some misconception going on here," Harper said. "The Corps arranges easements along the river with property owners, either purchasing the property outright or just the right to flood, to allow the Corps a certain margin without encroaching on private property. However, that has nothing to do with how much the area could potentially be flooded."

  Harper's goal at this point, he said, was to find some better way to communicate with people in Carroll County in the event of similar floods in the future.