Hurricane Ida's rain floods Pigeon Forge roads

Hurricane Ida's rain floods Pigeon Forge roads

By JOSH AULT
6 News Reporter

PIGEON FORGE (WATE) -- Hurricane Ida brought a lot of rain to Eastern Tennessee on Tuesday.  Many of the mountain creeks and rivers were swollen, some spilling over into roadways. 

By Wednesday morning, more than 10 roads were closed.

Roads weren't the only things underwater. At Clabough's Campground on Wears Valley Road, they had to evacuate campers.

"They just came around and asked everybody to move," said Judy Bomar, who was staying at the campground.

Fifteen campers had to be moved to higher ground. Water rose several feet at the campground, covering picnic tables and grills.

"You couldn't see any of the lower camp sites at all," Bomar added.

Just down the road on Highway 66, a side road was closed. High waters from the Little Pigeon River had risen parallel to the road.

"I was interested in it because I think it flows the wrong way, but I've never seen it flow so big the wrong way," said Iva Green, who was visiting from Asheville, North Carolina.

"I would say it's somewhere around 10-12 feet," said Neal Gains, who's visited Pigeon Forge from Georgia for the last 30 years.

Gain says he's never seen the river this high and had this advice to drivers who encounter a closed road. "I'd turn around. Don't take a chance going through a barricade."

The good news is, most of the water had already started to recede by Wednesday afternoon.