Waves crash as the Chickamauga Dam spills water on Friday, March 1, 2019, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s management of the Tennessee River during recent heavy rain has saved the region from significant flooding.Last year was the rainiest in 130 years of recorded history for the Tennessee Valley.
This year? It’s been even wetter.
Hard, steady rainfall in February drenched the valley and has catapulted the year toward the record books. The Tennessee River is already at peak summer levels normally not seen until the beginning of June. In Chattanooga – which saw 9.7 inches of rain in February – the river reached a designated flood level of 30 feet, or about twice its normal depth.
There was measurable rainfall 22 out of 28 days in February, making 2019 the wettest February ever recoded in the Tennessee Valley, with 169% of normal rainfall.
“Every dam upstream, we started storing water because we know that Chattanooga is potentially one of the most dangerous areas we have for flooding,” James Everett from Tennessee Valley Authority’s River Forecast Center in Knoxville said.