Dazed Tenn. survivors view rubble of homes
Some question timing of officials’ evacuation alerts.
Residents of Gatlinburg, where 13 people died, return to fire-ravaged houses to find nothing left.
Residents and business owners in Gatlinburg got their first look at the wildfire destruction on Friday, and many walked around the once-bustling tourist city in a daze, sobbing.
They hugged each other and promised that they would stay in touch.
“We love it up here so much,” said Gary Moore, his voice trembling. “We lost everything. But we’re alive, thank goodness. Our neighbors are alive, most of them. And we’re just so thankful for that.”
The county mayor raised the death toll to 13 and said the number of damaged buildings was nearly 1,000.
After days of waiting to see their homes, some of the shock residents felt began to give way to anger, and local authorities bristled when asked why they had waited so long to order the evacuation.
“The city sure could have done a better job of getting us out of here,” said Delbert Wallace, who lost his home. “When they got up that morning, when they seen that fire, we should have been on alert right then.”
Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters and other officials noted the fire moved so far so fast, officials had little time to react. Once they did, it was nearly too late.
Waters said it was not the time for “Monday morning quarterbacking” and promised a full review later.
John Matthews of the Sevier County Emergency Management Agency said a text evacuation alert went out around 9 p.m. Monday. But by that time, wildfires were raging in the area.
Matthews said some did not receive the message due to power outages and loss of cellphone reception.
Local officials, bowing to pressure from frustrated property owners, allowed people back into most parts of the city Friday.
“This is all that’s left of our house,” said Tammy Sherrod, standing with her husband in front of the rubble. “We had five minutes to get off this mountain. We got off with the clothes on our back. We got off with a few pictures.”
The dead included a Memphis couple, Jon and Janet-Summers, who were separated from their sons Jared, Wesley and Branson during the wildfires.
At a news conference, Jon Summers’ brother Jim talked about the three young men’s harrowing escape and their parents’ death.
He said the Summers family first received a call from their condo’s owner to evacuate. They jumped into a car and drove down the mountain until a tree blocked their path. They got out and ran, becoming separated from their parents.
They were found unconscious at the bottom of the mountain. Jim Summers said the sheriff estimated the boys had run several miles.
“Quite frankly, the way the kids got down the mountain is a movie in and of itself,” Summers said. “I mean, It’s just beyond belief. They went through walls of fire.”
When authorities found the parents’ bodies, they couldn’t identify them by photographs, Summers said.
Jared Summers was released from the hospital, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center plastic surgeon Dr. Blair Summitt said he anticipates the other two should be able to leave in about a week. The boys play in a band together and were on their first family vacation together in four years.
Jim Summers shared some comments from his nephew Wesley.
“He wanted everybody to know that, ‘My parents, I believe, died happy,’ “he said.
Others who died in the fires included a couple from Canada, 71-year-old Jon Tegler and 70-year-old Janet Tegler, and May Vance, who died of a heart attack after she was exposed to smoke. Officials at a news conference said Vance was vacationing in Gatlinburg, but an obituary posted online said she was from the area.