WILMINGTON, N.C.– In response to heavy widespread rain across North Carolina and Virginia over the past few days, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Wilmington District will begin higher flood releases at John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir on Thursday, April 27.
Daily inflows as high as 90,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) will push lake levels in Kerr up by as much as 9 feet in the coming days. As a result, releases from Kerr are being increased to 35,000 cfs to begin releasing these stored flood waters that would have otherwise caused major downstream flooding. These higher releases are anticipated to last through the end of next week, when lake levels are expected to be back to normal and releases can be greatly reduced.
Flood releases from Kerr have not been this high since flood events in 2003; however, changes to Kerr’s water control plan that went into effect last year allow for higher releases sooner, reducing the duration of our flood releases, bringing lake levels back down more quickly, and allowing the floodplain to begin draining sooner.
Release no. 18-014