Nearly 6 weeks after Helene, another section of Blue Ridge Parkway reopens
About a third of the Blue Ridge Parkway has now reopened in North Carolina, as the National Park Service works to repair damage from the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
An 11-mile section of the road opened Wednesday near Asheville, between U.S. 70 and N.C. 191 near the N.C. Arboretum. That stretch includes the Blue Ridge Parkway visitors center and the Folk Art Center, which is scheduled to reopen Nov. 9.
All 469 miles of the parkway were closed after Helene, between Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The storm left tens of thousands of trees across the road and numerous landslides and washouts.
As of Nov. 1, the park service had restored access to all 217 miles of the parkway in Virginia, where the storm did less damage.
But the road, a part of the National Park System, remains a patchwork in North Carolina. About 92 of 252 miles of parkway in the state are open to visitors, spread over four disconnected sections.
The park service says the most severely damaged parts of the road will remain closed for months.
Helene left the parkway covered in trees near Asheville. Workers removed more 350,000 cubic feet of storm debris, enough to fill nearly 150 shipping containers, according to the park service.
“Incident teams and contractors have been working on this section for over a month, with large numbers of damaged trees, vast amounts of tree debris in the roadway, and heavy equipment at work simultaneously throughout the corridor,” parkway superintendent Tracy Swartout said in a written statement. “I am grateful for everyone involved in the effort to reopen this critical section of the parkway.”
The segment that opened Wednesday runs between mileposts 382.8 and 393.7. Other sections that have reopened in North Carolina include:
▪ Between mileposts 285.5 and 305.1, near Blowing Rock, including the Moses Cone Manor House parking lot and nearby carriage trails.
▪ Between mileposts 405.5 and 420.2, from U.S. 276 to Black Balsam, including the Graveyard Fields overlook and trailheads.
▪ Between mileposts 423.2 and 469.1, from N.C. 215 to U.S. 441 in Cherokee, near the national park.
A section of the parkway south of the Virginia state line was closed before the storm for repaving and has not reopened.
The largest section of the parkway still closed by Helene runs between Asheville and the Linville Falls area. This stretch includes access to Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell State Park, the highest point east of the Mississippi River, which both remain inaccessible.
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This story was originally published November 6, 2024 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Nearly 6 weeks after Helene, another section of Blue Ridge Parkway reopens."
