Right now, we are recovering from the previous rainfall that happened,” explained Anthony Rodino, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District Chief of Water Management. “So what we’re doing is we are working to discharge from our reservoirs as you see behind me.
“We definitely try to mitigate as much as possible,” Rodino noted. “And projects like this help us do that. Other projects like Center Hill, Dale Hollow, Wolf Creek Dam, all provide that same kind of mitigation, to again hold water back during storm events and then release it slowly in a more controlled manner after the storm has passed and the immediate flooding has dissipated.”
The reason for this is to protect Nashville from flooding as a result of a rising Cumberland.
Imagine during the Flood of 2010 if the water from all of those huge lakes had been allowed to flow into the Cumberland River, or if those dams did not exist and the water from the Stones, Caney Fork and Obey rivers would have combined with the Cumberland uncontrolled. The flooding would have been much worse.
However, there is a short-term type of flooding that the storage reservoirs cannot prevent – localized small creek and stream flooding.
“It’s important, you know, if your local creek or your local river still gets multiple inches of rain on your neighborhood. You’re still going to get localized flooding,” said Rodino. “This is not going to prevent that. You will still need to exercise caution around those smaller water bodies. What this is going to help try to mitigate is those larger, large-scale events, preventing the large rise that we see on the main rivers in our area.”Last Friday, I ventured out in the heat to Hole-in-the-Wall Island at Percy Priest Lake. I know I said I was done for the summer, but we had a slight break in the weather (i.e., high of 92 instead of 97 and a little less humidity), so when Roger, the guy I met at that bogus paddling class a few months ago, suggested the trip, I said I’d risk it as long as we launched EARLY. We met at 6 AM and were on the water by 6:30. It was in the 60s at that time (instead of high 70s as has been the norm), so it was pretty pleasant!
Hole-in-the-Wall Island is interesting because, when the area was flooded to create Percy Priest Lake, a narrow channel formed, leading to an inland pond. You can’t see the shape on this map–in fact, on the map it looks like the channel goes all the way through, which it does not.So it was a great trip, and I’m glad I braved the weather! By the time we returned, it was starting to get unpleasantly hot, but it wasn’t bad while we were out. It’s now back to 95 and high humidity, though. But it was great to have a little tune-up before my paddling day in Vancouver next week and my 4 days in Johnstone Strait at the end of next week. 
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