Blue Ridge Parkway to be closed indefinitely after Helene, National Park Service says

NORTH CAROLINA (WJZY) — The country's most-visited national park site, the Blue Ridge Parkway, will remain closed indefinitely, the National Park Service (NPS) said Wednesday. 

The closure affects the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, though some parts were hit harder than others by storm damage. It comes right as the region and scenic road typically see a boom in tourism, as weather cools and the leaves change colors. 

National park officials said the closure will be in place as crews continue their initial assessment of the damage from Hurricane Helene. The 469-mile scenic road starts at the Shenandoah National Park and ends at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Parkway winds through the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina, two states that suffered serious flooding and storm damage.

Rescue operations were ongoing nearly a week after the storm barreled through the region. The efforts were especially challenging in the mountains of North Carolina, where remote communities were hard to reach with all the washed out roads. The death toll across the Southeast topped 200 on Thursday, and hundreds were still reported missing.

Initially, two sections of the Parkway were closed ahead of the storm, but the full length was shut down on Saturday. 

NPS said it has activated an incident management team, which is assessing damage and stabilizing park resources.

There is no scheduled date for reopening any parts of the road.