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Two more sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway reopen

Workers clear debris on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Galax, VA. Image courtesy National Park Service

Workers clear debris on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Galax, VA. Image courtesy National Park Service

The National Park Service has announced that several more sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway have reopened after sustaining damage from Helene. 

Access has been restored to about 16 miles of the Parkway from Milepost 201 near Fancy Gap to Milepost 217.3 at N.C. Route 18. The Parkway is now continuously open from those points through the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

The section includes access to the Blue Ridge Music Center, which has announced it will be open daily from November 2-10.

Other destinations open to visitors include Bass Lake, the Moses Cone Manor House parking lot and carriage trails, and the Price Lake picnic area.

Further west, an additional 6 miles of the Parkway near Mt. Pisgah has been reopened. This section stretches from NC Route 151 to N.C. Route 276.

Campgrounds, picnic areas, and other visitor services in this section will remain closed. And hikers are urged to exercise caution as they may encounter hazards such as landslides, tree debris, and washouts.

The park is asking that visitors respect all road and trail closures.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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