photo by: Chris Conde

Floodwaters cover the Perry Lake swim beach on Thursday, May 23, 2019. As of Thursday afternoon, Perry Lake's elevation was at 917.5 feet, up 26 feet from its normal level of 891.5 feet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to release water from Perry Lake starting Saturday if heavy rains push the reservoir over its remaining storage capacity, according to a news release from the corps.

Based the amount of rain in the forecast, the Corps of Engineers could release up to 20,000 cubic feet per second from the lake, according to the release.

“Protecting lives is our number one priority,” said Col. Doug Guttormsen, Kansas City district commander for the Corps of Engineers. “We’ve been holding a lot of water behind our dams. However, as localized rainfall continues and the flood storage capacity fills up, our team individually assesses each reservoir situation in our region to determine if, when and the amount of water to release.”

As of Friday, the lake’s water level was at 917.81 feet, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s more than 26 feet higher than normal and just a few feet shy of the highest recorded level of 920.94 feet, which was recorded in July 1993.