The historic dam held, saving an untold number of lives.
A historic Tennessee dam is one of the countless heroes emerging fromthe devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene.
The Nolichucky Dam outside Greenville has been doing its job of holding back The Nolichucky River since 1913.
Credit:Tennessee Valley Authority
By 11pm on the night of September 27, the Nolichucky River was rising at two feet per hour.
At this point, approximately 1.3 million gallons of water were pouring over the dam each second.
For comparison, the peak daily water flow of Niagara Falls is around 700,000 gallons per second.
We have determined the dam is stable and secure, TVA wrote on Facebook September 28.
TVA is calling the rainfall at the Nolichucky River watershed a one-in-5,000-year event.
