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'We felt that was the best decision' | TVA Dam Safety workers talk about calling a 'condition red' for Nolichucky Dam after Helene flooding

The TVA said the 111-year-old dam survived water flow that was twice the volume of Niagra Falls and remained stable.

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Friday, spokespeople with the Tennessee Valley Authority gave updates on the Nolichucky Dam after it took on around 1.3 million gallons of water per second at peak flooding after Hurricane Helene brought devasting floods to East Tennessee.

That is twice the flow of water seen during normal conditions at Niagara Falls. TVA said the dam is over a century old and has been well-maintained. The TVA  has managed the dam since 1945.

"She really handled the water coming down through there like a champ," said Jim Bryant, a senior manager of TVA Dam Safety. "Unfortunately, we lost river gauges upstream. And so we really couldn't see how much water was coming over this dam."

Bryant said that factored into the decision to pull workers from the top of the dam when the water crested over. From there, they made the careful decision to warn local emergency management agencies about the risk of breaching or a dam failure. 

"We felt that was the best decision, it was the right decision to start letting the local EMAs know," Bryant said.

Bryant said the decision was not taken lightly, and teams of engineers and experts inspect the dam regularly.

"We have lots of dam safety experts," Bryant said. "We look at the overall risk of the dam, how we could potentially fail this dam. And we've looked at all of this prior to this event happening and we were ready."

When the water levels began to subside, the warning expired. 

Bryant said it could take up to 2 years to completely repair what TVA said are superficial and minor damages to the dam.

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