Tough Traveling in Tennessee

JUST OVER TWO WEEKS AFTER A MAJOR ROCKSLIDE on I-40 in the Smoky Mountains closed that highway for up to three months at the Tennessee/North Carolina border (see Firegeezer video report HERE) , another slide has sealed off U. S. 64 a little farther south in Polk County. The two-lane highway is the only major roadway connecting some towns in that area.

This slide came in two doses. The first one came down about 5:30 am Tuesday morning. The highway department responded immediately and began clearing the roadway well enough to let a single lane of traffic through. Just as they were removing the last few rocks at 1 pm, a second slide came roaring down and buried the roadway once again. This time the video crew from tv station WDEF had their cameras rolling and caught this rare footage of a real rockslide:

There is still so much instability in the ground that the crews will have to wait for a geologist to assess the situation and give them advice before they begin what is expected to be at least a week of work to clear this latest slide.

The problem for the entire area is the unstable soils from an unusually-wet autumn that has sent a lot of water down the hillsides.