I just live a couple of miles from Douglas Dam. Yesterday morning when I woke up, I could hear the giant turbine engines running. That usually means that they have opened the flood gates to release water into the French Broad River to control the risk of flooding. They can release it at the bottom small flood gates which just causing a swift flow in the river and a little extra turbulence. Of if it is really high, they will release the top flood gates and water will flow down from the top of the dam to the river. Me being me, I got in my car and drove over to see what it was hoping for it to be the top gates. It wasn't. But it was still cool to see how swift the water was flowing and to hear the large turbine's running. Between the roar of the river and the rumbling of the turbines, I was still glad I went. Here are a few pics I took.
Just to show you what it is like when they open the top gates, I snagged a photo from Wikipedia of one time when they were running wide open. The aerial view is fabulous.
It's breathtaking.
