The Tennessee Valley Authority has opened its floodgates to spill water through seven of its 29 dams because of heavy rains across its seven-state region.

But TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci said the utility does not expect any flooding problems on area reservoirs and lakes from this week’s rains.

“The flooding we’re seeing is largely localized, and we don’t anticipate any problems across the valley,” Ms. Martocci said. “The heaviest rains were in the Ocoee and Hiwassee (rivers), but there was still more rainfall in the past five days west of Chattanooga than there was east of Chattanooga.”

To help move more water from rain-soaked areas of the Tennessee Valley, TVA opened floodgates Sunday and Monday at three storage reservoirs in East Tennessee and at the four dams on the Tennessee River downstream of Chattanooga.

TVA is generating power at nearly all of its hydroelectric units and has opened some of its spill gates at the Ocoee 1 and Ocoee 2 dams in Polk County, Tenn., the Great Falls Dam 75 miles north of Chattanooga and the Guntersville, Wilson, Pickwick and Kentucky dams downstream of Chattanooga on the Tennessee River, Ms. Martocci said.

Rainfall west of Chattanooga averaged nearly 3 inches in the five days leading up to today. In the same period, rainfall averaged 2.4 inches east of Chattanooga, Ms. Martocci said.

“We typically see the heaviest rains in the our region in the winter and the spring,” she said. “But we also can see a lot of rain, especially from hurricanes and tropical storms, during this time of the year.”

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press