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.

The storm surge, wind damage and inland flooding from Hurricane Helene have been catastrophic, flooding neighborhoods, stranding residents and destroying homes in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,