TVA's system of dams along the Tennessee River and its tributaries has been tested by record flooding from Hurricane Helene, which drenched Western North Carolina and East Tennessee as a tropical storm , washing out interstate lanes and trapping residents as small streams in the Great Smoky Mountains suddenly became raging rivers.

Douglas Dam was spilling a record amount of water, 450,000 gallons a second. The Nolichucky Dam withstood twice the water flow of Niagara Falls.

The literal floodgates are open all along the Tennessee River as it moves Helene's floodwater from the Smokies to the Ohio River.