Beginning inside Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park and stretching all the way through the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway is also known as “America’s Favorite Drive” due to its very picturesque stretch of forest and mountainous terrain.
The Blue Ridge Parkway also happens to be the country’s most-visited park site, with more than 13.3 million adventurers coming to see untapped nature and also the thousands of deer, elk, black bears, coyote and countless other animal species who also call it home.
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But with Hurricane Helene making landfall and causing destruction across the southeastern United States earlier this month, a large section of the Blue Ridge Parkway leading up to Milepost 271 near Great Smoky Mountains sustained significant storm damage — debris, fallen trees and washed-out stretches of road.
‘Closures will remain in place until staff can safely assess storm damage’
Emergency workers are currently assessing the extent of the damage on different stretches of the road and, according to the National Park Service (NPS), the entire area will be closed indefinitely due to significant damage.
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“Closures will remain in place until staff can safely assess the park and clear any storm damage,” the NPS writes on its website for the Blue Ridge Parkway, adding it will “issue updates as they are available.”
The government agency further added that 99 NPS workers across 22 states and the nearby DC area are assisting with recovery efforts that include damage assessment as well as stabilization of any water emergencies and clean-up of fallen trees.
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‘Specialized skills and resources to support the parkway with emergency needs’
“The National Park Service has deployed its Eastern Incident Management Team which brings specialized skills and resources to support the parkway with employee emergency needs, emergency stabilization of affected park resources, and damage assessments,” the NPS writes further.
With Hurricane Helene causing more than 200 deaths, the Biden Administration has deployed over 1,000 soldiers to hard-hit states such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee on top of National Guard troops sent by state authorities.
Within Great Smoky Mountains itself, the Newfound Gap Road/US 441 was closed between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 over safety concerns while the storm was still ongoing but has now been reopened to those passing through the park.
That said, visitors who were planning to come to the national park this week are still being encouraged to put off their trips to a better time as many areas have still not been cleaned up from storm damage while staff ability to help in the event of an emergency is also limited. Those who had planned to hike or explore the park’s backcountry are especially encouraged to put off such activities as creek crossings and faraway trails may not yet be secured.
“Several park employees in both North Carolina and Tennessee are dealing with emergencies at home or are unable to drive to work due to closed roads,” the NPS writes for the page on Great Smoky Mountains. “Multiple employees are also assisting the Blue Ridge Parkway and surrounding communities.”
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