Gorges State Park remains closed for the foreseeable future as it continues to assess the damage brought in by the storm from Hurricane Helene. An expected re-opening is still unknown, according to Kris Anne Bonifacio, public information officer for North Carolina State Parks.
“Currently, we don’t really have a timeframe. We know for sure it will be closed through Oct. 31. But as of now, we don’t have a timeframe when it will be open,” she said. “I know the Department of Transportation has been working really hard on getting that fixed, but our priority for our staff, currently, is not really checking on the park status. That’s probably one of the later parks we’ll assess”
The park, alongside its hiking and biking trails, has been closed since Western North Carolina experienced Hurricane Helene, and it looks like locals may have some time to wait before any repairs can be made, according to Bonifacio.
Bonifacio added that progress on North Carolina’s state parks is being worked on from the eastern part of the state first, making its way toward the western region.
“So, the parks like Carters Mountain and Lake Norman are what we’re doing a lot of work on now. Our staff at Gorges, I know some of them were deployed to assist with North Carolina emergency management deployments across Western North Carolina,” Bonifacio said.
However, with work currently being concentrated more towards the eastern parts of the state, Bonifacio said that, from that experience, it has been difficult getting equipment on narrow roads and backup trails, which prevents an in depth look into the full scale of the damage.
“I’m not sure we’ve actually even done an initial complete assessment. The Park has two different areas,” she said. “I don’t know if park staff have even made it out to the backcountry part and we know that’s probably going to take a long time,” she said.
Bonifacio said it’s become difficult to tell when work will make its way toward the area, with workers currently occupied with providing service to the community instead.
“I haven’t heard anything, but I don’t know if that’s because we don’t have any damage or they haven’t been able to really thoroughly check anything. I know one of our staff had to be evacuated and I think they were. A lot of them are currently doing community service out in the local community,” she said. “So they are helping provide various safety functions at a number of places.”