Gatlinburg welcomes back visitors after deadly blaze
Downtown area was largely spared from wildfire’s devastation
GATLINBURG, TENN. Eleven days after a deadly storm of wind and flame descended upon Sevier County from the Great Smoky Mountains, the nation’s most visited national park reopened Friday alongside the city of Gatlinburg.
The dining room at the Pancake Pantry, a downtown landmark that typically has lines out the door, was about 40% full by 7: 30 a. m. Friday, just half an hour after the city reopened to the public.
“We were staying in Pigeon Forge and we wanted to come in, and we ate at the Pancake Pantry,” said Jerry Johnson, who arrived with his wife, Sue Lynn, on Wednesday from Kingston, Tenn. “I’ve been coming here my whole life and I have never seen it this quiet.”
Cars started trickling into Gatlinburg just before the sun rose, including a parade of visitors, delivery trucks and workers headed to the tourist city’s candy shops and pancake houses. The main business corridor downtown was largely spared from the fires that blew into town from the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 28, killing 14 people and injuring 176.
On Thursday evening, officials said the assessment of structural damage to homes and businesses was complete: 2,460 buildings damaged or destroyed— 1,137 in Gatlinburg, 18 in Pigeon Forge and 1,305 in other parts of Sevier County.
Friday, at Kilwin’s chocolate, fudge and ice cream shop on the main drag, an employee painted the ceiling with the hope of reopening the shop by the afternoon. The shop had to throw out all of the chocolates and fudges, weighing all of it to file an insurance claim, said Shana Laws, a supervisor.
Though the business didn’t sustain any damage from the fire, the building smelled of smoke, she said. Employees came in to clean out all the shelving and furniture and repaint the walls and ceiling.
“We threw everything away,” Laws said. “It’ll basically be a brand- new store, starting from scratch.”
Inside the Pancake Pantry, servers chatted with guests about the yellow haze that sat over the restaurant last week and the damage done to their own homes and those of friends and family. The restaurant’s owner, James Gerding, lost his home and vehicles, and one employee who had rented an apartment nearby lost all he owned, said company President Garry Myers.
Despite the devastation, the restaurant pushed to open its doors as soon as the city allowed. Employees came in on Monday to clean out the kitchen and toss all the expired food. The building never lost power, so the freezers and refrigerators saved a lot of the food.
The fires came near the end of a disastrous fire year in Tennessee, in which 1,427 blazes have spanned 44,027 acres to date. The severe and at times exceptional-level drought that has been in effect to some extent since April has turned the state, as well as the larger Southeast region, into a tinderbox. Although Gatlinburg received more than 3 inches of rain over the last week, the area remains nearly 14 inches below normal precipitation levels for the year, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.
The recent rain has been “very beneficial” for the drought, but in the long term “it’s not going to make a difference” unless the state continues to receive slow, steady rainfall, said Jessica Winton, a weather service meteorologist.