Famous resort theme park dollywood. Theres no damage to the park so far but more than a dozen of its Smokey Mountain cabins have been damaged. Let me bring in brad kisserman. Thank you so much for your time. We look at these flames. I talked to my colleague al roker tracking the forecast and its a pretty rough situation for the folks affected. What are you told by your team . Worst possible conditions is what im hearing from my team on the ground and let me just say, thank goodness for the firefighters, law enforcement, National Guard and First Responders because this is a horrific situation. We had over 1200 people in shelters last night. 850 when i checked in a few minutes ago. We have over 70 red cross volunteers on the ground and were flowing people in from surrounding states. We expect a sheltering mission for at least the next two weeks. Right now when you look at how fast it seemed to take over this area, the conditions have been dry and just seems as if it was a perfect storm f
To escape of gatlanburg, tennessee. Smoke choked roads, fleeing intense flames, looking and spreading like molten lava. Residents thankful to make it out of their homes alive. They let me go back to get my animals out, to get them safely. Were all safe now and my son. So were fine. Reporter terrified guests trapped inside, the fire too close and too dangerous for them to leave. These pictures taken by an employee of the hotel showing the fire burning right outside. Local Officials Say 30 structures devoured by the flames including an apartment complex. More than 500 acres burning in the small town several roads through Great Smokey Mountains National park have been closed. Officials say 70mileanhour wind gusts fueled the out of control fires near several popular tourist destinations including dollywood, the areas largest theme park. Just days ago, Country Music legend releasing this Public Service announcement. Please help firefighters avoid wildfires. Reporter parton asking to help pr
they literally just saved their own lives which obviously we re thankful for that but now waking up to the reality that they don t have their bedrooms or homes. hundreds of structures burned meaning a tennessee emergency management reported that three resorts around gatlinburg had been destroyed, but now we ve gotten video in from the uber gatlinburg. the ski area resort and spa. they put up video saying they re fine. we now know that resort is fine but west gate smokey mountain, that s completely gone and black bear falls, a log home community, all rentals. that is completely gone too. this is a tourist town. about 14,000 people who live there. all asked to evacuate and all gone. there s a reason we are not showing aerial pictures is because there s flight restrictions. they don t want interference from the immediate why. we don media. when we get the pictures in, you can imagine what it will look
the fire was that close. they were told to leave immediately. so all of these people literally, they have nothing. all they have is whatever they put in the car with them as they ran out. there was also a report from the tennessee emergency management that uber gatlinburg, the spa and ski resort, this remains. at first, it was reported this was destroyed so people are happy to know this remains. that is good. we ve gotten reports that the ripl ripley s aquarium, all the employees had to leave in the middle of the night, leave the animals and everything else. that s been untouched and remains fine. a little side note, something called hill billy golf. one of the best on the side of a mountain. that s been completely destroyed along with the river house motor lot. one of these vacation places for anyone in the region. everybody s been there at one point and everyone trying to find out what s standing and what s destroyed. the personnel said it s not just about vacationers, there are pe