Flooding issues on the TN River

As most of you know, the middle of the country is experiencing severe issues with flooding. The TN River forms such lakes as Chickamauga, Wheeler, Pickwick and Kentucky. With extreme rains, all the lakes are filling up to well over summer pool levels. It would be great if they TVA or Corps of Engineers (Barkley Dam and Lake) could just kick the gates open and let all that water run thru but the Mississippi, TN, Cumberland and Ohio Rivers are all flooded too. There is a game of guesswork going on as to how much to release and how high they can let the lakes go.

MY buddy, Shawn Dunnaway of ExploreKYLake.com, filmed this at KY Dam yesterday as they were starting to close gates and let KY and Barkley Lakes fill up. These lakes are on different rivers (Barkley is on Cumberland River) but are connected by a mile long canal so the levels are pretty much the same.

YouTube

Pickwick looks the same Doug. 3.6 million gallons a second. My neighbor behind me is on an island as we have a creek that backs in from the river behind us. We or both on a hill, but they are using a small boat and parking up by us. There is water every where here in Savannah Tn. as the river has been out the banks for a few days. Appears it might have peaked at 395.33 ft, but will take days to recede. Lots of homes,roads and businesses flooded.

I was at Guntersville Lake on Sunday and it's getting quite full too. My dad has lived down there for almost 30 years and never seen it as high as it is on the upper end. The boat houses on the upper end have 1-2' of water above their docks.

Do you think these rivers will have a chance to recover before the major thaws up further north start pushing even more water south?

Selfishly, I want to fish. However, there are so many that have REAL problems associated with the flooding.

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

Do you think these rivers will have a chance to recover before the major thaws up further north start pushing even more water south?

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Our local news is consumed by this and nobody seems to be able to estimate when the rivers will be able to start back down from major flood stage. Any new forecast of rain is going to change everything. I would say those now affected along the Mississippi and its tributaries are going to have misery for weeks to come.

All of Ohio basin and Upper Mississippi is already high and in places lowland flooding due to past rains. Here in Indiana most of our lakes are super high as they aren’t letting out and still holding. We don’t need any more rain.

Cumberland lake is at a record level. They have all of the flood gates open and the turbines pumping as hard as they can. Think they are going to wash the streets of Nashville but hopefully that's all they do. They are not gaining any on the lake either. Cumberland river will be jacked for a while.

A few pics from my yard(it got about 2 ft deeper and covered the road in the first pic.), looking north from the bridge at Savannah Tn. and the Pickwick dam. 3.6 million gallons a second. Doug, sorry but we sending it your way. Being originally from south Louisiana, I can say the Mississippi river will be up until at least June. Ruins a lot of good fishing.
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I feel for all those who are having their homes and places of work flooded. I saw a lot of that the years I lived in S. Louisiana.