NC mountains

This is the temporary road leading to and from Banner Elk, NC.

This is normally a quaint, beautiful two lane road that leads up the mountain to our BG resort. I fear for the buildings that were downstream from this....some of the best shops I have ran across reside on that road. Local artisans are going to be out of work for some time, as it will take months to get the water and sewer systems back online and their is still no telling when some folks will get electricity, although the main corridors have already been repaired. Outlying areas are a completely different story.

From the Banner Elk town manager wrote:

- At this time, most roads are impassable and we ask that people not bring supplies in person. If you would like to make a financial contribution, the Town of Banner Elk has partnered with a 501(c)3 charitable organization that serves the Greater Banner Elk Area. Tax-deductible donations can be made at this link >>> https://givingtuesday.mightycause.com/event/Supportbannerelk

Tom

They will be finding bodies for years Tom, years.

And more from my friend that lives in the area....











Tom

Top of the mountain, overlooking Banner Elk this morning....



Tom

Good catch. No, Banner Elk won't be ready for thr public for months. Heck, it won't even be ready for residents for months.

Tom

Thank you Tom for keeping us up to date on NC. Praying

Okay, so it's been almost a year since Hurricane Helene hit the Eastern seaboard of the US and basically just parked over the mountains, dumping all that she had in areas that quite frankly, will never be prepared for an event like this.

Lake Lure was 50 feet deep of debris in some areas. It took 4 months just to clear off the debris on top. They have now drained the lake 30 feet and are removing debris from the bottom of the lake as I type this. There are plenty of YT videos out there that show the massive cleanup in just that one area.

We went back up to the mountains, specifically to Pigeon Forge this past weekend. So, we drove past some of the damage. Unfortunately, we couldn't leave until around 6PM, so much of the area we passed through was hidden by the darkness, by the time we passed through the mountain areas that were so badly damaged. Even with nightfall basically blinding us to the full extent of the destruction, we could clearly see that massive damage had occurred.

We left our town, headed up to I-85, then turned R onto I-26 at Spartanburg, then to I-40. That was where most of the damage we saw going up was. I-40 was opened up 5 months after Helene, but it sure wasn't like normal. 3 lanes each way were reduced down to 1 lane, each direction and even at night, the family was amazed at just how much of the highway was just GONE. It was closed down again last month because it had washed away again, after some recent rains but was reopened on the 25th, if memory serves. It will take years before the permanent repairs are made.

What we saw was the biggest collection of Earth movers I have ever seen in my life, all staged off the side of the highway. In one spot, I must have counted 25 of them parked in a row. I couldn't see much because of the darkness, but it looked like 3 major areas of the highway were very heavily damaged. These areas, we usually fly by at 65 to 70MPH. This trip, I believe we didn't go over 15MPH, max speed, for a 7 mile stretch....after we made it through the traffic just to get to the one lane section of the highway.

It became a 2 hour traffic jam, that would have normally taken us no longer than maybe 8 minutes to pass through. Keep in mind, this was not during peak travel flow. It was at night. I would hate to have to pass through this everyday, as a local, during rush hour. It would take up almost an entire shift of working hours just to make it through this pass and back. What should have taken 4 hours to get to our destination, ended up taking a little over 6 hours. In all honesty, I thought that it would have taken us longer. We just counted our blessings.

So, that was what we saw when we headed to TN. Surprisingly, there weren't as many trees down as I thought there would have been, but then again, it was dark and it has been almost a year of cleanup.

Coming back, we decided to take another route. Going back through that mess would have been a nightmare, seeing as how it was the end of Labor Day weekend and by the time we left, when we checked the Waze app? Many areas were already in the red. That took us out of the main path of the storm (somewhat), but we did pass through Asheville. There were some sections near the river that apparently were easier to just completely rip up and start over from scratch, than it would have been to repair. Some areas, as big as an entire city block.

While we tried our best to stay out of the worst damaged areas, what we did/could see was pretty much an incredible recovery.....and recovery efforts. My hat goes off to the hundreds of thousands of people who have made the recovery what is has been. There were many areas that didn't even look like anything had ever happened, even though we went straight up the path Helene took on I-26 and I-40. There were still some highway signs that were all twisted up, and some still just laying on the ground, leaning on what was left of the twisted metal support beams.

I will say this, it was nice to go back, after cancelling all of our vacations to the mountains after Helene. The Blue Ridge Mountains are near and dear to my heart and it is truly a special place.

Tom

Man! Gas is cheap there!! $3.50 here. That super is almost $5 a gallon.

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Man! Gas is cheap there!! $3.50 here. That super is almost $5 a gallon.

Thank JB for that!

This was a photo taken about 3 hours ago....from the same area we stayed at. I had heard reports that they were getting hammered, and then saw this.



Tom

Apparently, there is a glitch in the matrix. I only posted the photo once....it is what it is. That said? Enjoy it twice. LOL

Tom

Here's a site that shows the current closers on the Blue Ridge parkway.

https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

treitz3 wrote: »

Have you been up in that area since?

Tom

Absolutely, I live in the mountains and close enough where a small ribbon of the parkway is apart of my daily commute to work/home spring through summer. I have been living up there for six years now and this past year was the first I've witnessed the Parkway open year around due to all the damage caused to the surrounding roads all thanks to Helene. I'm not complaining about being able to drive year around on the parkway. It does get abit bum squeaky when it's snowy/Icey through the sections without guardrails .