Power Restoration, Relief Efforts Underway in Affected Communities

The impacts of Hurricane Helene have been life-threatening, life-altering and will be lasting.

“Our hearts go out to everyone affected, and especially to communities with loss of life and flood damage to homes, buildings, bridges, roads, infrastructure and individual property,” TVA Chief Operating Officer Don Moul said. “TVA is here to serve, limiting downstream damage from the most extreme weather events, and working to help communities and people as they begin to rebuild.”

During the past several days, TVA team members have worked around the clock to monitor river and reservoir conditions; store and move floodwaters through the TVA dam system; support restoration of electric service on TVA, local power company and neighboring systems; and assist local, state and federal agencies' emergency relief efforts.

Moving forward in supporting recovery and restoration efforts, TVA’s priorities are as follows:

• Supporting both the immediate needs of impacted communities and the long-term restoration efforts that will take place in the coming weeks and months across western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. This includes providing direct assistance, response personnel, and equipment, relief supplies and resources.
• The safety of those working on emergency response and restoration in these conditions, of the public, and of the dams that protect numerous downstream communities as historical levels of water move through TVA’s reservoir system.
• A thorough, proactive and precautionary evaluation of TVA assets and facilities across the impacted area to ensure their stability and identify any long-term impacts.

Following extensive flooding on unregulated waters upstream from TVA’s tributary dams, the TVA River Forecast Center team continues to control water movement through the TVA river system to minimize downstream flooding.

TVA’s most significant challenge was at Nolichucky Dam in Greene County, Tennessee. In conjunction with emergency management agencies, TVA issued a precautionary warning of potential dam failure to alert the public downstream. The Nolichucky Dam is stable, the river level has crested and is falling, and emergency warnings have been lifted. TVA is now conducting a thorough assessment and evaluation on Nolichucky Dam to ensure its long-term operation.

TVA conducted inspections of all other impacted dams and all were secure and stable.

TVA’s River Forecast Center is monitoring all other tributaries in the impacted areas, where rivers are gradually returning to normal levels. The team is also working to manage downstream reservoirs, which are rising. TVA’s 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.

The TVA service area’s bulk electric system and TVA’s transmission system are currently stable and secure.

TVA continues to assist local power companies with service restoration in their communities, and TVA lineworkers are helping neighboring Duke Energy in western North Carolina.

“This event has caused significant damage in the eastern portion of TVA’s service territory and the recovery will be a large-scale and long-term effort,” Moul said. “Recovery will require extensive coordination across many counties, communities and agencies. TVA and its people will be there to support these historic efforts.”