GSMNP Wildfire Aftermath

News Source: www.local8now.com/content/news…

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - More events and companies are extending help to the people who were displaced by the wildfires that ripped through Sevier County more than two weeks ago.

First, KFW Wrestling is hosting a "Fight for Sevier County" event on Friday, Dec. 16, at the River Plantation RV Resort in Sevierville. All proceeds will go to benefit affected families.

The event is also an official "The Walking Dead" meet and greet, with several cast members from the hit AMC show in attendance. To learn more and purchase tickets, visit KFW Wrestling's Facebook page.

Nashville-based printing company Familytree Design is also doing its part to help fire victims. The company, which offers art prints of all 50 states, is donating half of the proceeds from its Tennessee print to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which is offering support to fire relief efforts.

The print, which features an outline of Tennessee with a design of the Great Smoky Mountains within, is 13x19 inches, and is available unframed for $30 or one of a selection of framing options for $65-70. To learn more and purchase the print, visit Familytree's website.



News Source: www.local8now.com/content/news…

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Smoky Mountains Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund will be aired on MyVLT on December 13 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

The three hour telethon is organized by Dolly Parton to support those affected by the recent wildfires in and around Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Dolly and 22 of her friends, including Reba McEntire and Kenny Rogers are slated to perform during the benefit.

“I know there are a lot of great events being planned to help the people of East Tennessee, however, I am planning a telethon to support the ‘My People Fund’ where 100% of the money will help those who lost their homes in the wildfire. I am planning on doing this on Dec. 13th in Nashville, Tennessee,” the country legend said.

Parton announced the My People Fund on Nov. 30, after the airing of Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, and has already pledged to provide $1000 each month to Sevier County families whose homes are uninhabitable or were completely destroyed in the recent Smoky Mountain wildfires.

During the telethon on December 13, viewers will be asked to call 1-866-CARE MORE to donate to the My People Fund. Anyone who would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the My People Fund may visit dollywoodfoundation.org. For those wishing to send donations via mail, those contributions should be sent to: My People Fund, c/o Dollywood Foundation, 111 Dollywood Lane, Pigeon Forge, TN 37863.



News Source: wate.com/2016/12/12/gatlinburg…
WATE 6 staff
Published: December 12, 2016, 5:29 pm
Updated: December 12, 2016, 5:30 pm

GATLINBURG (WATE) – With the shelter population dropping from hundreds to 17 over the weekend, the city of Gatlinburg is moving the Red Cross Shelter at Rocky Top Sports World to the meeting room at the Gatlinburg Community Center.

The city said the Community Center will operate on its normal schedule. School buses will continue to drop off students at the community center and the Boys and Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains after School. Students may be dropped off at the Smoky Mountain Boys and Girls Club, free of charge, on a temporary basis as long as the Community Center is being used as a shelter.

For more information, call (865) 436-4990.



News Source: www.local8now.com/content/news…

Posted: Sun 5:37 PM, Dec 11, 2016
Updated: Sun 5:45 PM, Dec 11, 2016

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WVLT) -- A group of volunteers from across the country helped residents who lost everything, find what the fire spared Saturday.

The group Samaritan's Purse based out of North Carolina, brought dozens of volunteers to Gatlinburg last week. Their goal is to help homeowners find anything of value that didn't burn in the fire.

The group used shovels and sift through the rubble by hand to find valueables. Saturday the group helped Sandy Cover who lost her home. The group did find a few things and Cover says the help is a blessing, especially since she's been dealing with the loss of her husband who died two weeks before the fire.

""Oh I've just felt loved, I feel love from these people, I feel love from God. I just feel like everyone is working together just to help people," said Covers.

If you want to join Samaritan's Purse you can find the information here: www.samaritanspurse.org/

The group has a list of volunteers who get notified when there is a disaster area that needs help.



News Source: wate.com/2016/12/09/businesses…

By Don Dare and Jennifer Webb Published: December 9, 2016, 6:20 pm

GATLINBURG (WATE) – Many prominent Gatlinburg businesses were back to serving customers Friday, 11 days after the deadly wildfires.

Tourists from all over the country came back to town to enjoy some of their favorite activities.

Calhoun’s opened right on time at 11 a.m. Reopening was a relief for the workers and servers.

“Money-wise, you have to keep your bills up and I need to be back at work,” said server Heather Kyker.

“It’s been two weeks since I got to work last. Pockets are definitely feeling it, this close to Christmas,” said server Cheyenne Gibson.

Terry Calhoun is a baker at the popular restaurant. The father of four lost his home in the fire. For a while, he was concerned about whether he would have a job.

“I was feeling hopeless there for a good week and a half to two weeks, not knowing what the future held. And being able to come back here and know that, I love the people I work with. I love this place to work. I’m still making money. I feel useful again,” he said.

Calhoun’s Village has three different restaurants. At one point last week, management wasn’t sure if their buildings would be intact. Fortunately, there was no major damage.

“Buildings were intact. We had some wind damage, but we had been, I guess, lucky the fire didn’t get on our property, unlike other people who weren’t so lucky,” said manager Bart Frick.

Ron and Bonita Peyton came from Morristown to be some of the restaurant’s first customers.

“I wanted to support the people in Gatlinburg and all that they went through. And one way to do it is to come, shop and eat and dine and spend some money,” said Ron Peyton.

“This is such a big time of year for them. It really broke my heart when I thought it was going to be gone this year. Having to come back from all of this is hard enough, but missing their main shopping season and people coming to vacation and spend money would have been devastating,” said Bonita Peyton.

It took three days to bring in all the food and get the restaurant cleaned up. Calhoun’s Village believes this will be a successful winter season.



Ripley’s Aquarium is the top attraction in Gatlinburg and people piled in on Friday. The aquarium reopened at 8 a.m. to enthusiastic visitors.

“We actually called to cancel our reservations, and they said don’t worry, everything will be back up and running within the week. So we got real excited. We had everything packed up and ready to go. We definitely didn’t want to miss this,” said Nikki Lee Chase.

“We had planned to be here this weekend. When the fire happened, we cancelled. When they talked about reopening today, we rescheduled and got up early to show up,” said Larry Schell.

Special generators kept life support systems working to protect the thousands of aquatic creatures during the time the aquarium, along with the rest of Gatlinburg, was closed. Ripley’s is also taking care of its employees.

“We’ve made sure all of our employees have been paid throughout. They’ve gotten their normal paychecks, no problems, no misses, no anything. We’ve had 31 employees lose their homes. We have 29 people permanently placed at our expense and the other two should be placed by the end of the day, fingers crossed,” said General Manager Ryan DeSear.

Several hundred employees work at Ripley’s during the busy winter season. All are glad to be back.

“It’s important to bring the community back together,” said photographer Jacque Newton. “And just for everybody to be together. It’s almost like a festive atmosphere.”

Some elementary school students from Grainger County were very excited. Their field trip to the aquarium continued as scheduled.

“It’s been a traumatic couple of weeks for all the citizens of Gatlinburg, and all the employees of Gatlinburg and all the businesses of Gatlinburg. But being normal, having visitors in the building and acting like a normal December day is amazing,” said DeSear.



The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was full of people on Friday, despite the cold temperatures. Everyone is happy the park is back open.

The park had wind and fire damage and crews had to remove trees and clean up rock slides. The park’s Sugarland area reopened Friday, allowing visitors back into some of their favorite spots.

“To tell you the truth, I was very interested in seeing if there was any damage done to the wildlife center, which is right here. I’ve always enjoyed it every time I’ve come to Tennessee,” said John Thompson from Kingston.

Park employees are happy to have guests back as well.

“Oh we’re so happy to have people back in the park. This has been such a devastating week for our Gatlinburg community and our hearts have really been broken over the whole tragedy. And so its just super nice to open and to be able to have visitors back to the Gatlinburg area and visitors back to the Smokies as well,” said Jamie Sanders with the park.



WATE 6 anchor Kristin Farley had a chance to catch up with Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner Wednesday night and get his thoughts on the arrests of two juveniles in the deadly wildfires and the reopening of the city.

FARLEY: “Mayor, it has been some time since we’ve a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with you. I appreciate you coming down. We’ve got to start with today’s big developments. Two arrests, but obviously even these arrests cannot possibly comfort the people here. What is your reaction today?”

WERNER: “I know a lot of people have just had a lot of questions. How did it start? You know, how did it happen? I think that it’s closure for a lot of people, but it’s still devastating, the whole thing. Our hearts go out to everybody and we just want to get back to normal. We have such a great relationship with the national park. That’s what’s making Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg. Everybody has done everything they possibly can to help everybody during the tragedy. First responders, they are risking their lives. They are doing everything possible, going door to door, every avenue we had to tell people to evacuate, we were using. And it’s just part of this whole story, but I think it did bring closure to some people today.”

FARLEY: “It did. I think a lot of people were kind of surprised and/or shocked that we got some answers possibly this quickly.”

WERNER: “I think so too, but I know that the TBI, the national park, everybody has been working nonstop, you know like all of us have, to try to get some answers that people want.”

FARLEY: “Let’s shift gears. We’re looking down into your beautiful city. Each and every time we come down here, we see another renewed sense of positivity and a chance of opening back up and returning to some sense of normalcy. How are you feeling tonight taking a look down the street?”

WERNER: “I’m feeling great. We worked so hard to get back and get the business started again and do the things we need to do. And everybody’s joined to gether to make this happen. Friday morning we’re back in business. Tonight there’s nobody in town, but Friday night, come back and it’s going to be packed with people.”

FARLEY: “One last quick question. A huge part of this is getting employees back to work, getting cash flow back in their pockets, if that has stopped through all of this, and getting them back into a routine. And that includes you. You have a lot of employees yourself. How is that going?”

WERNER: “You know, our employees have been like family. We’ve had the same employees for so long and our heart goes out to them and we’re doing everything we possibly can to help them. There was a Facebook fund for our employees. They had a goal of $10,000 and they reached that in a couple of days. People are just really anxious to help everybody. But the businesses are going to be back open and come to town and enjoy Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg is intact. Our downtown is intact, and I think that’s one of the biggest stories we want to make sure that gets out.”