The Hiram Caldwell House looks out over a road rendered impassable following major flooding on Rough Fork Creek. Cataloochee Valley is closed until further notice.  National Park Service

Damage to park infrastructure widespread on North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Holly Kays is the lead writer for Smokies Life. 

GATLINBURG — As Hurricane Helene gathered strength in the southern Gulf of Mexico, it seemed likely Great Smoky Mountains National Park would take a direct hit. The storm was a category 4 before slamming Florida’s Gulf Coast; then it headed north toward the Smokies.

But its course shifted east. Helene and its predecessor storm dropped unfathomable amounts of rain across Southern Appalachia — many places received well over a dozen inches in a matter of days, with some locations recording two dozen or more. The storm’s severity was unprecedented in the region, causing flash floods and landslides that have so far claimed at least 95 lives in North Carolina alone. Asheville, where extreme flooding destroyed entire neighborhoods and decimated the water system, logged more than 14 inches between September 24 and September 28.

Most of the park fell far enough west of Helene’s path to escape with only minor flooding, but its extreme eastern region — Cataloochee, Balsam Mountain, Big Creek — was inundated. Record-setting rains tore out trails and roads and damaged historic buildings, leading the park to close these areas until further notice.

Cataloochee Valley is closed until further notice after flooding from Rough Creek Fork rendered Upper Cataloochee Valley Road impassable.  National Park Service

Helene fallout continues; hundreds still missing; at least 60 dead in NC; flooding and wind damage still widespread in Southern Appalachians; National Guard in action; land access, supplies, communications, water and power still spotty

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Demolished vehicles are seen in the area of what used to be Red Banks Campground in the Chestoa area of Unicoi County.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

ERWIN — The death toll from Hurricane Helene climbed to at least 180 people on Wednesday, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in 50 years with the exception of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed over 1,800 lives in 2005 in what was also a largely impoverished area.

In one-hard hit community in the mountains of northeast Tennessee, emotions grew high as Spanish-speaking family of missing loved ones accused first responders through an interpreter of showboating, classism and preferential rescues during a tense press conference broadcast live on X.

The mounting death toll and increasingly fruitless searches came as millions of people spent their sixth day without running water or power and an ad hoc army of first responders, volunteers and National Guard troops struggled to deliver life-saving supplies to communities throughout the Southern Appalachians that were cut off by the record breaking flash floods spawned by the storm.

In Erwin, a town of 6,000 in Unicoi County, officials confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched into the conduct of a manufacturing company that was accused of forcing employees to keep working even as floodwaters rose to dangerous levels.

The alleged decision by the management team at Impact Plastics led to the deaths of at least two employees while four others remain missing, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has been tasked with determining whether there’s enough evidence of wrongdoing to warrant criminal charges.

“At the request of First Judicial District Attorney General Steve Finney, TBI agents are investigating allegations involving Impact Plastics,” said TBI spokesperson Leslie Earhart in an e-mail exchange with Hellbender Press. 

Earhart referred questions to Finney, who said “there will be no further comment from my office … until the investigation is complete.”

According to the company — which denied any wrongdoing — five employees and one contractor were lost while trying to leave the facility on Friday.

“When water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power, employees were dismissed by management to return to their homes in time for them to escape the industrial park,” said a company press release. “At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility …. While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons.”

Several workers tried to escape the premises on a truck but were swept away when the vehicle overturned, according to the company.

“We are devastated by the tragic loss of great employees,” said Gerald O'Connor, who founded the company in Erwin in 1987. “Those who are missing or deceased, and their families are in our thoughts and prayers.”

A Spanish-speaking woman clutching a blown-up photo of a missing relative blasted Unicoi County Emergency Manager Jim Erwin through an interpreter.

“My daughter was screaming ‘help, help,’ but the people in the hospital were a bigger priority than she was. I want my daughter! I want my daughter,” she implored in Spanish, referencing the water and air evacuation of Unicoi Hospital on Friday morning.

Officials responded that the Unicoi County 911 dispatch center had received multiple requests for a timeline of Sept. 27 911 calls. They assured her the search continued, and that Erwin had visited with family of all the known missing.

Erwin, who said he was among those trapped at the hospital, appeared flustered for a moment at the woman’s insistent quest for answers, noting that the discussion, practically speaking, was not helping locate her missing daughter.

“If I was white and rich you would be looking for me,” the mother cried through the interpreter. “Labor workers never matter to you, because they work in a factory.”

Migrant laborers live throughout northeast Tennessee, working mainly in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Many have very limited resources, and already live within some of the poorest counties in the state.

Massive piles of debris, hastily plowed aside, are lining the edge of the Nolichucky River.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

Officials said Wednesday that Hurricane Helene killed 91 people in North Carolina, 36 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 17 in Florida, 9 in Tennessee, and 2 in Virginia.

In Newport, the county seat of hard-hit Cocke County about 45 minutes east of Knoxville on I-40, hundreds of people lined up in parking lots or flocked to grocery stores in a desperate scramble to secure the basic necessities of survival.

As is often the case in such disasters, the storm was a vivid reminder of the value of being prepared for the unexpected. 

The Jenkins family, who lives in the rural Cocke County community of Bybee, said the floods developed so quickly that most residents didn’t have enough time to prepare and those who did still weren’t fully prepared for such a powerful deluge.

“The aftermath was something out of an adventure or post-apocalyptic film,” said Tiffany Jenkins, who lives on Knob Creek Road with her husband, Steve, and his two children from a previous marriage. 

“Cars standing on their front ends, bridges completely washed out, and no safe route to or from civilization,” she said. “Finding ways out of town was almost impossible in itself, even with intimate knowledge of the area and typical flood zones. The problem is this was not a typical flood.”

Most Cocke County residents are still without clean water thanks to damage to the area’s water treatment plant. The Jenkins, however, are grateful to have resources that allowed them to ride out the storm and even help their neighbors in the aftermath.

“Luckily, my family has well water, which allows us to fill jugs of water for our friends and anyone else who needs it who could get to us but couldn’t get to Newport, where they were giving away free supplies,” she said.

“My family bought a used generator we could not afford because emergency services warned us to be prepared to be without electricity for a week or longer, though the power outage only lasted about 24 hours for us personally.”

She added: “The big problem was, and still remains, the lack of city water services.”

According to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), Cocke was one of 21 counties experiencing problems due to storm damage to their water treatment stations, 17 of which had been forced to issue Boil Water advisories.

Officials from TVA said that all dams in the affected region had been inspected and “were secure and stable.”

Unaka Springs Freewill Baptist Church. The entire paved parking lot was flushed away. The spire lost its characteristic woodwork, merely its concrete scaffolding remains.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

During the storm, the most severe crisis faced by TVA was the potential failure of the Nolichucky Dam, prompting authorities to repeatedly warn people living downstream about the potential for a cataclysmic dam failure.

Nolichucky dam before Hurricane Helene.  Tenessee Valley Authority

“TVA’s River Forecast Center is monitoring all other tributaries in the impacted areas, where rivers are gradually returning to normal levels. The team is also working to manage downstream reservoirs, which are rising. TVA’s focus is on preventing additional flooding and moving water through the system to recover reservoir storage,” a statement posted on TVA’s website website said.

Large segments of the Appalachian Trail were shut down by the storms while the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina sustained “catastrophic damage,” which is still being assessed, according to the National Park Service.

In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Foothills Parkway East near Cosby and Lakeview Drive remain closed while park staff address storm damage.

Balsam Mountain, Cataloochee and Big Creek roads and campgrounds also remain closed, according to the Park’s website.

“The National Park Service has deployed its Eastern Incident Management Team to assist parks in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina with damage assessments and recovery as conditions allow,” said a statement issued by the Park Service. “The team is coordinating with parks, FEMA, and other agencies on their actions.”

Here’s another look from the federal level

Normally a fairly prolific X user, Rep. Tim Burchett of Knoxville doesn’t represent the worst affected regions but flooding occurred within Knox County and down the road in Newport and other points along the Pigeon River and French Broad River, which joins the Holston to form the Tennessee River, which flows directly through Knoxville. He didn’t post about the disaster or offer any warnings or assistance until late Sept. 27, when his first reference to Hurricane Helene’s effect on the mountains was a repost of a user conflating flood relief and  U.S. support of Ukraine. The worst flooding had occurred hours before. His only other post on that fateful day was another claim of pending election irregularities.

After a flurry of obligatory reposts of aid requests and resources; Burchett wrapped it up late Wednesday with a repost of a follower claiming FEMA was confiscating money and homes. He told the follower he had checked it out, and FEMA denies that is happening.

The Nolichucky River deposited entire mature hardwoods on both sides of I-26 in Tennessee near the North Carolina border in the Chestoa area during extreme flooding Sept. 26-27.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press