When Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical storm that stalled over the mountains of western North Carolina in September, floodwaters poured into Tennessee, killing 18 people in the Volunteer State.
But after the French Broad, Nolichucky and Pigeon rivers overran their banks, they met a major obstacle: Douglas Dam.
The Tennessee Valley Authority finished the dam in 1943, and it broke its own record in the days after Hurricane Helene, releasing 450,000 gallons of water through its gates each second as it slowed the flood’s devastating pace.
TVA estimates the dam helped prevent as much as $186 million of flood damage in Chattanooga alone after the storm.
The nation’s largest public power provider isn’t shy about its role in preventing the catastrophic floods that used to plague the Scenic City. One of its web pages is titled “Saving Chattanooga.”