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'She’s roaring': Keystone Lake Dam release brings onlookers amidst flooding

By: Naomi Keitt

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KEYSTONE LAKE, Okla. — Keystone Lake is sitting more than 20 feet above normal, causing some flooding in the area. It’s also bringing a lot of onlookers to the dam.

“She’s roaring,” said Dylan McManus. “There’s a lot of water coming out of it.”

McManus stopped by Keystone Lake Dam on his lunch break.

“I wanted to see how high the river was with how much rain we got,” said McManus.

He wanted to see the steady release of water; the Army Corps says it’s more than 46,000 cubic feet per second.

McManus wasn’t the only one watching the water release on June 17, there were a steady stream of families, people on their lunch break, and onlookers curious about the release.

“I just came down to see how full the dam was and how rapidly it was going now because I knew we had to be at flood stage,” said Sandra Freeman.

Sandra Freeman lives in Sand Springs. She remembers the 2019 flooding which impacted some of her friends’ homes. She says this isn’t as bad but it’s not good either.

“This is the worst I’ve seen it for a while,” said Freeman.

Just down the street at Keystone Lake Park there were plenty of things underwater including parking signs, boat ramps, docks, and picnic tables. Even some camping areas were off limits because of flooding.

Here is footage of the dam releasing 46,000 cubic feet a second from viewer Alec Ridener:

Footage of flooding at Keystone Lake 2025

At 21 feet above normal, Keystone Lake is plenty high and with more rain on the way, there are some concerns about even more flooding.

“We’ve got a lot of water in the last couple of weeks itself,” said McManus. We’ve got a lot of water. It’s got to go somewhere.”

2 News told you on June 10 when Zink Lake in Tulsa closed because of the high release at Keystone Dam.