Severe thunderstorms that swept through the Lake of the Ozarks region over the Fourth of July weekend caused widespread damage, knocking out power to thousands of residents and damaged docks around Camden County.
Camden County Emergency Management Director Chris McNail says the Sunrise Beach area, north of Camdenton, was among the hardest-hit locations.
“We do still have many residents without power, a lot of trees in the power lines,” McNail said. “Most roadways are currently passable. There are still a few that are impassable, mainly due to trees. However, those trees are tangled up in the power lines.”
McNail said only minor injuries were reported despite several incidents involving people trapped by downed power lines and storm-related damage. At the peak of the outages, about 30,000 people around the Lake of the Ozarks were without electricity.
The storms also caused significant damage on the water.
“There was many docks that sustained anywhere from minor to heavy damage,” McNail said. “Roofs on the docks that were ripped off. Had one large dock that actually broke free completely and kind of floated out into the lake. Didn’t hear any reports of any boats in the docks being damaged, just the docks themselves.”
Dock damage at Lake of the Ozarks (Missourinet photo)
As cleanup continues, utility crews have been working to restore service across the county. McNail said most customers were expected to have power restored by Monday, although some rural residents may face longer waits.
“They actually stopped giving estimates yesterday,” McNail said. “Some of our local cooperatives, they were down to less than 4,000 people as of yesterday. They were hoping to have power restored by today. Some of our more rural areas where it’s affecting one or two houses, it may take an additional day or two to get out there.”
McNail said utility companies are prioritizing repairs that restore power to the largest number of customers first, while more isolated outages may take additional time to repair. Crews continue cleanup and restoration efforts across Camden County as residents recover from the holiday weekend storms.
The severe weather also affected Independence Day celebrations. Organizers in Jefferson City canceled the Salute to America concert featuring country singer Chris Janson after storm damage impacted event equipment.