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Two children hurt in reservoir break leave hospital

Ameren Energy's upper retention reservoir shows a gapping hole which dumped 1.5 billion gallons of water down the Proffit Mountain washing away homes and cars. (UPI Photo/bg/Ken McSwan)
Ameren Energy's upper retention reservoir shows a gapping hole which dumped 1.5 billion gallons of water down the Proffit Mountain washing away homes and cars. (UPI Photo/bg/Ken McSwan)

By AP/KWMU

St. Louis, MO – Two of the three children who were hurt when a reservoir broke last week in southeast Missouri left a hospital on Sunday.

Tara Toops, 3, and seven-month old Tucker were released. Another sibling, Tanner Toops, 5, is still hospitalized.

Their home in Lesterville, Mo. was ripped from its foundation Wednesday after a section of wall around a mountaintop reservoir broke and unleashed about a billion gallons of water.

The injured youngsters are children of state park superintendent Jerry Toops and his wife, Lisa. The Toops home was one of the few structures affected.

Water in a fifty-acre upper reservoir of the hydoelectric plant, emptied in 12 minutes raising the level of the Black River in Southeastern Missouri, about 120 miles from St. Louis. Officials now say equiptment that measures the level of the reservoir may have failed allowing water to overflow.

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