Blue Ridge Parkway to be closed indefinitely, National Park Service says
By Alix MartichouxDoug Coats,
8 hours ago
NORTH CAROLINA ( WJZY ) — The country’s most-visited national park site , Blue Ridge Parkway, will remain closed indefinitely, the National Park Service said Wednesday.
The closure affects the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, though some parts were hit harder than others by storm damage. It comes right as the region and scenic road typically see a boom in tourism, as weather cools and the leaves change colors.
National park officials said the closure will be in place as crews continue their initial assessment of the damage from Tropical Storm Helene. The 469-mile scenic road starts at the Shenandoah National Park and ends at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Parkway winds through the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina, two states that suffered serious flooding and storm damage.
Rescue operations were ongoing nearly a week after the storm barreled through the region. The efforts were especially challenging in the mountains of North Carolina, where remote communities were hard to reach with all the washed out roads. The death toll across the Southeast topped 200 on Thursday, and hundreds were still reported missing.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0