Hurricane Helene

We can’t thank you enough! On Giving Tuesday, you helped raise $44,000 to support the Blue Ridge Parkway’s recovery after Hurricane Helene.  Your love and appreciation for this treasured place is awe-inspiring. In a time of great need, you stepped up for the park you love. We are so grateful.

Photo: Along the Asheville corridor on the Blue Ridge Parkway, before clean-up (left) and after clean-up (right).

From the National Park Service:

Update from the National Park Service: Parkway reopens near Waynesville from milepost 411.8 to 421 and from milepost 423.2 to 469. BALSAM, N.C. – On Wednesday morning, October 30, 2024, the National Park Service restored access to nearly 55 miles the Blue Ridge Parkway from:

News release from the National Park Service (Oct. 23, 2024) BLOWING ROCK, NC – On Wednesday morning, October 23, 2024, the Blue Ridge Parkway opened to traffic from milepost 285.5, at Bamboo Gap, to milepost 305, near Beacon Heights, in the Blowing Rock, North Carolina area. This is the first section of roadway to open in North Carolina since Hurricane Helene. Opening this section of the park provides improved transportation links while communities address ongoing storm recovery on other local routes.   

From the start, the very idea of the Blue Ridge Parkway was monumental. Just imagine the incredibly ambitious undertaking of constructing a 469-mile scenic route over and even through mountains to create a new national park.  Today, we face a monumental challenge—Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic destruction. We desperately need you to come to the aid of your storm-battered park. We have never tackled a greater task in the 27 years since donors like you became stewards of the national park.

Update from National Park Service 10/10/24 Asheville, N.C. – The Blue Ridge Parkway from milepost 0 to milepost 198 in Virginia, which closed due to impacts from Hurricane Helene, will reopen at 8 a.m. on Friday, October 11. This includes the 198 miles of the scenic byway from Shenandoah National Park south to Virginia Route 685 - Skyview Drive/Turkey Ridge Road (near Fancy Gap):

National Park Service News Release Hurricane Helene Recovery Update – Tuesday, October 8