A major Tennessee interstate that runs through the Great Smoky Mountains may be closed for weeks following flooding and rock slides.
It will take around two weeks to clean up and repair the damage left on the I-40 near the Tennessee and North Carolina border Wednesday, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
A series of four rockslides and flooding brought rocks, trees and muddy water. No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but cars and trucks were left stuck in the debris-filled water. As of Thursday, only an 18-wheeler was left on the I-40, the Sentinel reported.
Tennessee state Representative Jeremy Faison wrote on X Thursday morning, “The damage is more extensive than @myTDOT initially anticipated. Significant impacts have been identified on both the interstate and the ramps.
As of this morning, several areas remain under water, and there are potentially compromised slopes. Geotechnical engineers are on-site today to assess the stability of those slopes.”
Will Reid, chief engineer for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, said at a Thursday press conference that it will cost an estimated $500,000 to clean up and repair the road, per the Sentinel.
The damaged road is part of 12 miles of I-40 that was wrecked by flooding as Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina and Tennessee last September, The Associated Press reported.
“We’re still in trauma,” Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis said at Thursday’s press conference, adding that Tennesseans’ “ears are still ringing from eight months ago.”
Crews are still fixing the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, which will continue alongside the rockslide cleanup, the Sentinel reports.
“When that first call went out, immediately it was like, ‘Oh no, not again.’ But then, within a half a second later of that it was, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ And that’s what we do. Whatever the challenge is, we’re going to face it together, head on. And we’re going to overcome it,” Mathis said.
