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.

Helene, now a weakened post-tropical cyclone, left chaos and destruction across the Southeast. A damage estimate said the storm will cost billions.