"We're releasing the equivalent of about eight Olympic-sized swimming pools of water every minute," said Army Corps of Engineers Natural Resource Specialist Elaine Wittry.
The string of recent rainstorms has caused the water to rise 14 feet above the normal level.
There's debris in several spots of the lake, and the boat ramp is underwater.
The Army Corps says it will continue releasing water during the next several days, possibly into the weekend.
"We have a lot of debris in the water," said Wittry. "There's a lot of big logs in the water, so if you do go out onto a boat, there are a lot of underwater hazards right now."
The water is being released into the Haw River and will eventually go downstream to the Cape Fear River.