State workers at Montauk State Park clean up concrete rearing pools on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, one day after massive rains washed over the berm and released an untold number of rainbow trout into the Current River.

SALEM, Mo. — Kyle Case, hatchery manager at Montauk State Park, remained an optimist Wednesday, one day after a massive amount of rain hit south-central Missouri and swept an untold number of rainbow trout — some tiny, some huge — into the headwaters of the Current River.

He wouldn’t estimate or describe the situation as a loss.

“The flood stocked a lot of fish prematurely,” Case said.

There were recently 950,000 head of fish in various stages of development held in the system of ponds, concrete pools and tanks along the Current River at Montauk. Receding water revealed a lot of destruction, but it was still too murky Wednesday afternoon to see the bottom.

“The water was ripping through here. They would have hunkered down,” Case said of the fish. “We are hoping they did that.”

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Kyle Case, hatchery manager at Montauk State Park, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

But he said people had been collecting some fish from the nearby woods, in pools of floodwater.

“Wherever there is a puddle, there is fish in them,” Case said. “We are trying to save them the best we can.”

Montauk, one of five state hatcheries and a destination for thousands of trout anglers each year, received about 12.5 inches of rain on Monday and Tuesday. New lines of sand and mud remained, eight to 10 feet above the rearing pools that Case was clearing out.

“The cleanup will take months because there is so much destruction,” Case said. “And it’s not just here at the hatchery.”

Some cabins were gutted. Picnic areas looked like beaches, covered in new drifts of sand. Sections of asphalt ripped from parking lots lay scattered in the grass like strips of muddy carpet.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Don Hagler, 76, of Salem, assessing the damage. “Never.”

“It’s a sanctuary,” added Tom Wiley, 58, who drove down from Clifton Heights in St. Louis to check out the area he visits often. “I just come down to recharge the batteries. I have never seen anything this destructive down here.”

Several miles downstream, water got so high that it ripped out the gauge that measures river levels at Akers Ferry, a popular camping and canoe rental spot.

“This is the biggest flood we’ve ever had on the upper Current River,” said William Terry, chief of facilities and maintenance at Ozark National Scenic Riverways. “This will be challenging for visitors to access the river, but we are going to be doing the best we can to get the park opened up.”

Part of the damage left at Montauk State Park on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. The park was hit by 12.59 inches of rain on Monday and Tuesday.

View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.

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