East Tennessee’s Dollywood, home of Dolly Parton, experienced flash floods due to strong thunderstorms. One minor injury was reported, according to a statement released by park officials, and visitors were escorted to safety on Sunday afternoon by park staff, the Pigeon Forge police, and the fire department. The theme park announced that cleanup personnel had been sent in and that it was offering support to visitors whose vehicles were impacted. Monday at noon marked the park’s opening, and Splash Country—which remained unaffected—opened at its scheduled time. The Pigeon Forge Police Department reported that McCarter Hollow Road at the Dollywood entrance was closed on Sunday night due to a road collapse.
Season pass holders JeMiale McKinney of Knoxville, together with his wife and two daughters, planned to visit the park on Sunday. According to McKinney, there are instances when it is beneficial to go when there is a chance of poor weather since a lot of people will leave and you’ll enjoy shorter trip times once the weather clears. But it was pouring heavily, and the entrance was shut in ten minutes. According to McKinney, people could tell that driving through the often thigh-deep water wouldn’t be worth it.
We were stranded in the parking lot more quickly than we anticipated,” he remarked. They were stranded there for two hours before workers managed to topple a fence and allow passengers to escape. “I was taken aback by how composed everyone seemed,” he remarked. In approximately one hour, the region received about five inches of rain, according to an email from Dollywood spokesman Wes Ramey. “The fact that we only have one minor injury shows how well our hosts handled the situation and how well our guests followed their directions, even though the volume of rain was difficult for the park’s and the city’s infrastructure to manage,” Ramey added. According to him, the park will assess the feedback to see if any adjustments are required.
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