I love Gatlinburg. We also skipped Dollywood. We opted to spend all our time in beautiful GSMNP.
Prayers for everyone in and around Gatlinburg and the other areas affected. I do hope that they were able to save the many historical structures and buildings within the park. I wonder how much damage was done at Chimney Tops.
Gatlinburg itself for the most part is intact. The outlying cabins and homes look like Tokyo after the firebombing in WWII. The Park Vista Hilton hotel on a hilltop in Gatlinburg caught fire but was only partially damaged. I have stayed at this hotel and the video of the fires shows it to be very close to the hotel. Dollywood is fine although they lost a few of their cabins.
Rain tonight is forecast, hopefully a slow heavy rain to soak the ground and put the fires out. In my neck of the woods it has been one arson fire after another. Fire crews have been run ragged the last month. It would not be a good thing for one of these arsonist to be brought before me on a jury. They would be someone’s bit*h in prison for a long time.