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Storm Damage Leads To Shutdown Of Blue Ridge Parkway's Price Lake

88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The Piedmont | By Paul Garber
Published August 25, 2021 at 5:52 PM EDT
A car attempts to drive through flood waters near Peachtree Creek near Atlanta, as Tropical Storm Fred makes its way through north and central Georgia on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway were temporarily closed from the storm's debris and Price Lake remains closed because of damage to its dam. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

A popular spot for recreational water sports on the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed until further notice. Julian Price Memorial Park is at the base of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina's High Country.

National Park Service officials say Price Lake was hit hard by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred. As a result, the dam that regulates the lake's flow was broken. It's now all but emptied.

Fishing, boating and other activities are currently prohibited. The nearby campgrounds and hiking trails remain open.

The park is named for insurance magnate Julian Price, who bought the 4,200-acre tract of land to provide a retreat for his employees. After he died, his heirs donated the property to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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Weather Price ParkTropical Storm FredBlue Ridge Parkway
Paul Garber
Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.
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