On the last Thursday of September, as Hurricane Helene was setting out on a path of destruction from Florida to the southern Appalachians, Kim and Rod Ashby stopped at the home they were building in Elk Park,

The National Park Service has reopened U.S. 441, also known as Newfound Gap Road, which runs through Great Smoky Mountains National Park between Cherokee, North Carolina, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. As on the parkway, commercial vehicles are prohibited on U.S. 441 through the park.