The entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway has been closed indefinitely as crews assess the damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene, the National Park Service has announced.
The 469-mile road runs from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The Park Service earlier had closed the parkway through North Carolina, but it has expanded the closure to include Virginia.
As of Thursday afternoon, 250 National Park Service employees from 32 states and the District of Columbia were joining with the Blue Ridge Parkway staff in the recovery efforts, according to a news alert on the National Park Service website.
The most severe damage to the parkway stretches from milepost 280 to milepost 469. The National Park Service said in some cases, the damage is “catastrophic.”
In the coming weeks, staff will determine a timeline and cost estimates for repairs to the parkway, and according to the site’s alert, which was last updated today, assessment crews are still finishing their work in Virginia.
The announcement joins a growing list of closures. The U.S. Forest Service announced earlier this week that more than 90 miles of the Appalachian Trail through Virginia would be closed until further notice, and trail managers have asked hikers to avoid a much longer stretch of the trail until damages can be fully assessed.
