Rivers below Douglas, Watauga dams flood as TVA moves Helene water: 'Like the ocean'

(This story has been updated.)

As search and rescue missions and a yearslong cleanup of the catastrophic Hurricane Helene are only beginning in East Tennessee, water continues to pour into reservoirs and flood communities downstream of dams.

There is no clear end in sight.

Though dams helped slow the flow of water, preventing the kind of destruction caused upstream, they cannot stop it entirely. In Carter County near Elizabethton, houses were surrounded by water from the overflowing Watauga River as the Tennessee Valley Authority released record flows through the Watauga Dam.

By Oct. 2, the only National Weather Service flood warning in East Tennessee was for areas of Sevier and Knox counties below Douglas Dam. Douglas Lake rose nearly 22 feet in three days between Sept. 26-29, equal to 182 billion gallons of water. TVA continues to release more than 440,000 gallons a second into the French Broad River.

TVA, the federal utility that owns and operates Douglas and Watauga dams, relied on the reservoirs behind the dams to store historic amounts of water from Helene and prevent further flooding. The utility does not know exactly when the high flows of the French Broad and Watauga rivers will end, spokesperson Scott Brooks said.

"The focus is on preventing additional flooding and moving water through the system to recover reservoir storage space in the event of additional rain in the coming days," Brooks told Knox News in an email. "Much of it depends on what else happens in the mountains and east."

Though there is "localized flooding" downstream on the Tennessee River, TVA expects the main river "will remain below flood stage," Brooks said. The Tennessee River ran high and fast past Knoxville, exceeding its normal summer levels.

A river boardwalk at the Ijams Nature Center at the headwaters of the Tennessee River in Knoxville flooded on Oct. 1, forcing a closure of a trail. The center said the water would need to recede eight feet in order for the trail to reopen.

The Knoxville-Knox County Emergency Management Agency told residents along the French Broad River in East Knox County to prepare for possible flooding and evacuations in a press release on Sept. 28. Water levels farther downstream in Chattanooga and Alabama are higher, and TVA expected commercial navigation to remain closed for several days.

Flood warning below East Tennessee dams could be extended

The Sevier County Emergency Management Agency posted photos of flooded properties and homes surrounded by water along the French Broad River on Sept. 29.

The agency evacuated a mobile home park and more than a dozen roads in the northwest part of the county, and asked residents to self-evacuate if they lived in a low-lying area near the French Broad River, which rose 11 feet in 24 hours on Sept. 27-28.

The flood warning below Douglas Dam is in effect until 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2. It was extended another day on Oct. 1 and could be extended further, National Weather Service meteorologist Derek Eisentrout told Knox News.

"We're doing it because of TVA releasing large amounts of water from the dam," Eisentrout said on Oct. 1. "We are coordinating with them, and we're going to continue that flood warning just as an awareness to folks, until we're told by TVA that they're reducing that amount or stopping it."

If TVA alerted the National Weather Service to concerns for flooding below the Watauga Dam, the service would put out a warning or a statement, Eisentrout said. But residents along the Watauga River below the dam say it has been flooding over its banks for days.

Less devastation below dams, but flooding persists

Sunday Greer, a high school counselor at Sullivan East High School in Bluff City, came to help her 87-year-old mother who lives along the Watauga River in Elizabethton. The river has been flooding her mother's property since Sept. 27, when heavy releases from the dam began.

"The river has been over halfway in the yard, and it's white capping and flowing like the ocean," Greer told Knox News. "Upstream from us, houses closer to the river are completely surrounded in water now, and churches ... and it has not stopped since Friday. It is still going."

Staring at the flooding river is "unnerving," Greer said, because she has not gotten information on whether the river will flow higher and when the flooding will stop. Her mother got no warning of the possibility for flooding, she said.

Thanks to the dam, the flooding downstream is not as devastating as upstream. Six deaths have been confirmed in East Tennessee, though state officials expect the number to rise as more than 100 people are missing.

"We can't make any plans of recovery until the water goes down," Greer said. "I hated to even talk about it until now, because of all the other devastation going on around us and loss of life and home, but this river is still flooding, and no one knows it. No one is aware of it, except the people that are dealing with it."

Greer rented a sump pump to get water out of her mother's home, and many others in the area are trying to deal with the waters similarly. Several people cannot get to their homes yet, she said.

When will Helene waters below TVA dams recede?

Flooding in Sevier County below Douglas Dam has hit its peak and the waters in evacuated areas are beginning to recede, Sevier County EMA director Joe Ayres told Knox News. The agency is monitoring TVA's releases from the dam.

"We hope to see that they are able to close the spillways in the next couple of days," Ayres said Oct. 1. "We did evaluate some of the areas that were impacted and we're hoping to be able to allow for those folks to return back very soon, hopefully today or tomorrow."

The towns of Boyd's Creek, Kimberlin Heights, Kodak, Sevierville and Seymour were at particular risk of flooding from the French Broad River. At the flooded Deerfield Mobile Home Park, the county EMA is allowing residents to return to gather their belongings. Residents must check in and out with law enforcement officials on site, Ayres said.

Water releases from Douglas Dam, Watauga Dam and Wilbur Dam – two river miles downstream from the Watauga Dam – were scheduled to decline by Oct. 3, according to TVA data.

• Douglas: 440,000 gallons per second on Oct. 1, and expected to be 245,000 gallons per second on Oct. 3

• Watauga: 58,000 gallons per second on Oct. 1, and expected to be 46,000 gallons per second on Oct. 3

• Wilbur: 61,000 gallons per second on Oct. 1, and expected to be 47,500 gallons per second on Oct. 3

Members of the public can track hourly water level information at TVA's 49 dams on its Lake Info app and website.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: East Tennessee counties below dams flood as TVA moves Helene rainfall