Hurricane Helene cleanup in East Tennessee faces stiff deadline
Hurricane Helene cleanup efforts in East Tennessee are up against a stiff deadline as crews work to complete the project by June.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) crews working at the Douglas Reservoir in Dandridge, Tennessee, hope to complete the cleanup efforts before water levels reach their summer peak at the end of June.
In September, Hurricane Helene left some East Tennessee waterways unrecognizable.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said they are clearing debris from waterways in six counties.
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One of those waterways is the Douglas Reservoir, where residents said a hurricane was the last thing they expected to happen in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains.
"It looked like you could walk on the water. There was that much debris," Dandridge resident Kathy Villars said.
"We had just come in from out of town, and it was gut-wrenching," Dandridge resident Jill Cody said. "You know, I've never been through a hurricane. Certainly, I did not expect to have one here, and I didn't realize how much it would affect me emotionally."
Clint Stanley is one of about 100 TVA workers tasked with cleaning up the reservoir's 390 miles of shoreline. So far, his team has removed more than 96,000 cubic yards of debris from the reservoir. That was enough to fill 96 barges.
Much of the remaining shoreline debris will be out of reach of TVA's excavators until the water level rises enough for the machinery to clear the steep shoreline. Land crews arranged stockpiles of debris along the shore for when excavators are able to reach it.
"We staged it at elevations in which we’ll have the appropriate drafts from the barges to go in and get it," Stanley said.
However, rising water levels are expected to carry debris that was once on the shoreline out into open waters. Stanley's team placed debris traps along the shore and in coves to prevent the debris from floating away.
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TVA Civil Construction Manager Kevin Holbrook said about three-quarters of the debris at Douglas Reservoir is natural and able to be burned to ash. He said burning the debris reduces the impact to Tennessee's roadways and landfills.
"Now, as our water levels rise, we're having to take that material here to our load out location and haul the remaining amount of debris to the landfill," Holbrook said.
Cleanup of Douglas Reservoir is about 70% complete, according to TVA.
Progress is moving along in the rest of the state as well.
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TEMA estimated over 2 million cubic yards of hurricane debris has been hauled out of Tennessee's waterways. That's enough to fill about 973 football fields at a depth of one foot.