TVA & EMA prepare for serious flooding next week

 “With above average rainfall totals on already-saturated ground possible next week, we are moving lots of water through the system to create as much storage as possible in our reservoirs while also limiting flows to protect downstream areas.” –James Everett, senior manager for TVA’s River Forecast Center.

• Possible closures of locks at Watts Bar and Chickamauga dams and commercial navigation through the Nickajack Gorge.

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Coming off a record-breaking year for rainfall in Tennessee, the tri-state area is preparing for more heavy rain for the next week or so.

Preparations are already underway…as the Emergency Management Agency joins TVA, and the city of Chattanooga to try to deal with an expected 6 or more inches of precipitation.

News 12’s Ashley Henderson has details.

“We are going to get a significant amount of rain between now and the end of next week.”

The departments that make up the Emergency Management Agency…are not waiting until the sky opens up to start work on dealing with high water—the usual places that flood, like Boy Scout Road and near the creeks. One of the first things EMA wants to do, is keep you informed.

AMY MAXWELL, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER says “People don’t realize the power of water. It is, especially the flow of water, people don’t realize how fast. It only takes a matter of inches before your vehicle can be totally submerged, and not under your control anymore.”

The main concern for TVA is also flooding. There’s been so much rain in the last three months that many of the reservoirs on the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio rivers are already above normal.

SCOTT FIEDLER, TVA SPOKESMAN “Right now, we’re moving about a million gallons of water a second through the Chickamauga Dam, and that number’s going to be raising and lowering as we push the water through the system.”

The city of Chattanooga held a news conference today to lay out its plans.

RICKY COLSTON DIRECTOR OF CITYWIDE SERVICES SOT—-“We’ll have crews out cleaning what we call ‘hot spots’, we have 229 of those. Those are areas that are prone to flood. And then we’ll also be cleaning our conveyances, which are catchbasins, curb inlets and drains, there’s probably over 5,000 of those.”

News 12 Chief Meteorologist Patrick Core has been watching the approaching weather system for several days.

“We’re a lot more susceptible to flooding in winter, because of two big reasons, first, our grasses, trees, shrubs, are dormant, so they don’t soak up the water that falls, and a second thing is that our daytime hours are so much shorter, so we don’t have the solar impact to soak up the soil too, so two big factors.”

However, all these heavy rains might be saving you some money.

Feidler says there’s a silver lining to all these clouds, the March fuel rate is 7% below the three year average. In Chattanooga, Ashley Henderson, News 12 Now.