re: Gatlinburg, TN suffers severe wildfire damage; 13 people confirmed dead

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Same here. Didn't really know her story and her efforts until we started going to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge about 5 years ago. Very impressive.

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We got involved with her imagination library in the late 90s when she started expanding it in East Tenn. Was so happy to sign up my own daughter for it two years ago.

I was reading on the Knoxville Sentinel that officials were worried about expected gusty winds starting today flaring up hot spots.

I was looking around on some travel boards and local Tennessee message boards for news about the park itself. A lot of roads are impassible, but according to those who know the geography up there, the Roaring Fork trail and the cabins along it are likely okay; that the fire didn't make it quite that far. The same for the little Greenbrier schoolhouse. Of course, this is speculation. It was confirmed by the Park Service that the Bud Ogle cabin, which I think is the first stop on the Roaring Fork, was okay.

I have to ask why they waited so long to evacuate. The smoke was everywhere they knew how dry it was and they knew how hard the wind was blowing and what direction it was pushing the fire.;

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Drought plus windstorm makes a bad combination. Ca isn't the only place this happens anymore.

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CA is not the only place wildfires happen, they've been occurring for millions of years in mountainous wooded regions all over the world. It's sad, but it's nature.

Not sure If said or not but now up to 10 fatalities and 40+ still missing at this time

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Look like Westgate..stayed there last Christmas

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That cul de sac at the top of the burned out image is where we stayed when we went there summer before last in 2014. Wow!

The Memphis couple was found dead. I'm afraid The remains of many won't be found. Temperatures were estimated to reach well over 1200 degrees in some areas. Wheels were melted off cars

Also, came out that the reason many people didn't evacuate is because they didn't know. Failures on many levels here

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Well, to be fair, didn't the fires spread because of high winds and basically there simply wasn't time to warn anyone?

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Yeah, it happened a lot faster than they knew what was going on. No one was prepared for it to go that fast.

Reading Knox News article the Knoxville paper which described the failure of the Alert system. Now it seems the locals in charge are trying to shift some blame towards the NPS. It was not stated but the response by Dana who is the GSM spokesperson was adamant everyone was notified that the fires were not contained at Chimney Tops. I get the emails and I had an email from the at 11:30 AM that day saying they had a problem at Twin Creek area. As I said before that area is right by downtown Gatlinburg.

There are going to be some lawsuits no doubt because they didn't have a plan in place and it's very sad all the way around.

Said the Alert was never sent to mobile phones until the fire was already at the city.

I stayed in Chalet Village over New year's a year ago. Hopefully they can bring it back...