What would happen if Thorpe Dam, located on the West Fork of the Tuckasegee River, failed one day? And what should local and state emergency organizations do?

Those are the questions about 100 Jackson and Swain county emergency workers and state officials considered Sept. 20 at an intense exercise in the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University.

The Tuckasegee River stretches more than 30 miles from Thorpe Dam in southern Jackson County west to Fontana Lake in Swain County. The river runs through Cullowhee, Dillsboro and Bryson City.
The scenario called for a dam failure on a sunny September weekday. The exercise was designed to test and improve the Thorpe Dam emergency action plan. It also allows state and local emergency management agencies to test and improve their own flood related plans.

“There is no reason for the public to be concerned about Thorpe Dam,” said Fred Alexander, district manager, Duke Power Nantahala Area. “The dam is visited frequently by employees and formally inspected twice a year by both Duke and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Automatic alarms are in place to detect problems as well.”

Thorpe Dam is 150 feet high, 1,310 feet long, and 830 feet thick at its base. It consists of more than 1.25 million cubic yards of clay, sand, rock and earth fill. The Thorpe Hydroelectric project began service on Oct. 13, 1941.

Duke Power’s Nantahala Area serves 61,000 customers in a rugged 1,729 square mile area of southwestern North Carolina. This includes Cherokee, Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties. Duke Power purchased Nantahala Power and Light in 1988. In 2000, NP&L became part of Duke Power.

Duke Power, a business unit of Duke Energy, is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. It provides electricity to approximately 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. Duke Power operates three nuclear generating stations, eight coal-fired stations, 31 hydroelectric stations and numerous combustion turbine units. Total system capability is 19,290 megawatts. More information about Duke Power is available on the Internet at: www.dukepower.com.

 

Back to Top
The Smoky Mountain News