“This is just about as high as it’s going to get” – TVA River Forcast Center

by Sheri Wiggins Steve Wiggins
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KNOXVILLE – Today’s conference call from the River Forecast Center brought some reassuring news for people living in low-lying areas near the Tennessee River. James Everett, Senior Manager of the River Forecast Center, told news media outlets that Pickwick and Kentucky Lakes, along with the tributary dams, which hold most of the excess water from our recent storms are about as high as they’re going to get. “Just because it’s not raining today, doesn’t mean that we’re not active managing all of the runoff water. We are going to be busy managing the flow to move downstream the excess water for some time,” Everett said. He continued, ” Month to date, we’ve had over 8-inches of rain averaged over the Tennessee River Valley. That puts rainfall totals for the month at about 400-per cent of normal. We’ve stored a tremendous amount of water in our tributary lakes which are approaching the Summer maximum levels. So, as we move water through Pickwick and kentucky Lakes into the Ohio River, we will start releasing water from the tributary dams to restore their capacity for the future.” This means, that even though the rains have eased up, the river will continue to flow at a high rate for some time, possibly a few weeks.

It appears that Pickwick Lake is about at it’s highest levels. Yesterday’s rainfall was heavy near Pickwick Dam, and TVA used about all of the storage they had available to maintain water elevation levels. But that’s over now. So residents of North Alabama and Tennessee should see levels begin to recede. Everett said that Decatur and The Shoals should see today as the crest, and beginning tomorrow, levels will begin dropping.

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