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UPDATE:  A temporary patch is securing the breach in the dam at Lake Waxhoma in Osage County near Barnsdall. Osage County Emergency Management Executive Director Jerry Roberts tells Bartlesville Radio, "At about 4:15 or 4:30 this morning they put the last load of rock in it.  It slowed it down to a little trickle. I'm 99.9% sure that it will hold until a permanent fix can be applied."

ORIGINAL STORY:

There has been a breach in the Lake Waxhoma Dam near Barnsdall in Osage County.

Osage County Emergency Management Executive Director Jerry Roberts said the Corps of Engineers out of Tulsa and the Oklahoma Water Resource Board out of Oklahoma City are on the scene with them. He said they're working to assess the damage and risk.

Roberts said there is a hole in the spillway that is about 15-feet wide and 20-feet tall. He said they don't know how deep the hole is because they have too much water going through it.

The road to the lake is blocked at this time. Roberts said they're going to see if they can do a temporary fix to slow the water coming out of the lake. He said the work will take place all night.

Roberts said their biggest concern is a complete blowout of the dam. He said that could cause some flooding in the areas of Avant, Owasso, and Skiatook like they saw in 2019. He said the water would go straight into Bird Creek.

Pumps are being used to get Lake Waxhoma's levels below the breach in the dam. Roberts said there is approximately 600 million gallons of water in the lake.

If there was a complete failure in the dam, it would take three hours before the water could get to Avant and six hours before it could get to Skiatook. Roberts said they aren't going to worry about evacuations at this time. He said they will notify people down stream if the situation worsens.