While crews are making progress in coping with the impacts Tropical Storm Helene had on Great Smoky Mountains National Park, some areas of the park remain closed due to damage from the storm.
The National Park Service at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is able to keep the Newfound Gap Road open 24 hours a day thanks to assistance from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Government and Sevier County (The Cities of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville and the Sevier County Government).
Attempts by commercial vehicles to cross Great Smoky Mountains National Park via the Newfound Gap Road, and accidents involving some that tried, have prompted the National Park Service to close the road overnight.
Who could have predicted that Hurricane Helene would carry her fury from the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Florida hundreds of miles north into Appalachia? While there were forecasts calling for the hurricane to be downgraded to a tropical storm and drop quite a bit of rain in the region, the extent of damage in western North Carolina has been breathtaking.
While cleanup from Tropical Storm Helene continues in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Newfound Gap Road that crosses the park from Tennessee to North Carolina is scheduled to reopen Wednesday morning.
Flooding, power outages, and downed trees were among the issues national parks were facing in the aftermath of Helene, which evolved from tropical storm to hurricane and back to tropical storm as it rampaged from the Gulf of Mexico north into Appalachia.
The U.S. Board of Geographic Names on Wednesday voted to change the name of the highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi, a Cherokee name for the mountain.