Blue Ridge Parkway Closed Throughout North Carolina And Virginia

Friday - According to a press release from the National Park Service, the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia is closed as crews continue their assessment of the damage from Hurricane Helene. The National Park Service has deployed its Eastern Incident Management Team which brings specialized skills and resources to support the parkway with employee emergency needs, emergency stabilization of affected park resources, and damage assessments. As of Thursday afternoon, 250 National Park Service employees from 32 states and the District of Columbia are working with Blue Ridge Parkway staff in the recovery efforts.

National Park Service assessment teams are still completing their initial inspections of the parkway, acquiring the data they will need to analyze the full impact of Hurricane Helene. Based on what the teams have seen so far, significant, and in some cases catastrophic, damage has occurred along the parkway, particularly from milepost 280 to milepost 469.

In the coming weeks, the assessment teams will utilize the data from their inspections to determine the full extent of the damage including the timeline and cost estimates for repairs. A projected reopening date of any section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina has not yet been established; assessment crews are finishing their work in Virginia.