By Shelly Kirchner
Correspondent
SPRING CITY, Tenn. — Modifications have been made to public areas at Watts Bar Dam after new data revealed that the area’s worst-case flood levels would be much higher than earlier predictions, officials said.
“We have better data for gauging this worst-case winter storm, and it could cause water to top the dam even with the flood gates open,” Chuck Bach, general manager of TVA’s Watts Bar Dam, recently told the Watts Bar Lake Association membership. “The probability is very, very small, but shame on us if we know that something is possible and we don’t do anything about it.”
The worst-case scenario probably would take about 25 inches of rain in a seven-day period, according to Mr. Bach.