Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park in Tennessee hit by flash flooding

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. – One particular person was injured at Tennessee’s well-known Dollywood amusement park on Sunday after a robust thunderstorm moved throughout the realm and produced torrential rain that brought about flash flooding.

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Heavy precipitation was reported throughout Knox and Sevier counties on Sunday, prompting the Nationwide Climate Service workplace in Morristown, Tennessee, to challenge a Flash Flood Warning for the realm, together with Pigeon Forge, the place Dollywood is situated.

The FOX Forecast Heart says 2.5 inches of rain fell in a single hour, and 4 inches in complete fell throughout the Pigeon Forge space on Sunday.

Pictures and movies from Dollywood on the time the flash flooding was reported present water overlaying walkways and parking heaps as individuals, some with strollers, wade by way of the speeding water to attempt to get indoors.

Movies additionally present flooding creeping into a number of retailers inside the amusement park.

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Different movies present a Dollywood parking zone surrounded by floodwaters, trapping quite a few autos inundated by the rising water. Folks may also be seen making an attempt to get into flooded autos.

Bailey and Sophie Elkins have been among the many Dollywood guests trapped by the flash flooding. The sisters mentioned they needed to wait about 2 hours for the water to recede earlier than leaving the park.

The ponds and creeks all through the park shortly crammed, enhancing the flooding, in line with the Elkins sisters.

“When that rain down poured it actually heightened the rising rise of the water in these ponds and what not, so they only overflowed so fast,” Bailey Elkins mentioned. 

After the flooding, Dollywood officers launched a press release saying one minor damage was reported amid the studies of the extreme climate and flooding.

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“I feel the staff dealt with it with such grace, and so they have been calm and picked up,” Sophie Elkins mentioned. “It positively was a number of water unexpectedly.”

The Elkins mentioned they have been in a position to go away by driving by way of a service entrance a number of hours after the flooding began. 

“Dollywood is supporting friends whose autos have been affected by this climate occasion, and cleanup crews have been deployed,” Dollywood mentioned in a press release.

Dollywood is predicted to reopen for enterprise on Monday afternoon.

“Park officers will proceed to evaluate circumstances and updates will probably be posted to our social media pages as further data turns into obtainable,” the park mentioned.