The same river that for decades has provided a livelihood to residents of Hartford, Tennessee, overflowed Sept. 27 and embarked on a path of destruction that decimated a tight-knit community of rafting businesses near the state line.
Though it can be missed in a blink when traveling down Interstate 40, the tiny community along the Pigeon River at Exit 447 is known to many as the last place to fuel up before entering North Carolina.
Rafting in the Smokies is among the 12 water adventure businesses in Hartford that have set up shop along Pigeon River channels over the years. By employing locals who have grown up on the river, these businesses are part tourism, part recreation and part education.
But the river that employees have become experts in navigating might never look the same.
“The course of the river has changed,” Jeff Poleet, river manager for Rafting in the Smokies, told Knox News. “Instead of us being riverside, we’re 200 yards from the river now.”
Pigeon River debris hurts rafting after Hurricane Helene
Rafting in the Smokies is located along the eastern bank of the river, which flows into a bend, with a channel between the business and the 10-acre Family Adventure Island connected to the mainland by a suspension bridge.
It’s the 10-acre island − which flooding whittled down to 5, according to the business − that was home to ziplining equipment, an extra amenity for customers’ outdoor adventures. The expensive beams, cables and netting were destroyed and washed away by floodwaters, contributing to Rafting in the Smokies’ $1 million worth of damages.
The business salvaged some equipment from the main building along Hartford Road, but areas where employees launch and pull rafts from the water remain unusable.
“A problem that I’m trying to figure out and trying to see if it’s TEMA, county or somebody that’s going to come in and clear out the debris so that we have the historic channel back,” Poleet said.
Many river guides have cleared debris before, running chainsaws in the middle of rapids to remove logs. But the debris brought on by recent flooding is not something they are used to.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this, and I’m sort of outside of my wheelhouse. I’m just trying to do the best I can,” Poleet said. “It seems like I’m walking from one impossible-to-solve problem to the next all day, with the help of people from Chicago, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida.
“They’ve come and helped us dig our life out of the mud.”
Without I-40 access, some tourists can’t get to Tennessee
Businesses like Rafting in the Smokies − along with Rapid Expeditions, Rip Roaring Adventures and Smoky Mountain River Rat − contribute “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to the Cocke County economy, Poleet said.
“Now that revenue stream is cut off,” he said. “I don’t know how we’re going to run trips being cut off from the river like that.”
Even if river debris is cleared, rafting companies still must overcome washed-out interstate infrastructure that could keep tourists from traveling to the area, especially the collapsed portion of I-40 near the North Carolina line.
Additionally, interstate delays can pose challenges for the business in transporting customers to drop-in areas. Typically, businesses bus customers roughly five miles upstream to begin their adventure, but even the drop-in areas will need to be rebuilt.
Parts of I-40 could reopen as early as the next two weeks, but just within Tennessee. While this won’t help tourists coming from the east, it could reopen Hartford along the interstate.
“There’s a lot of different layers to whether there will be white water rafting in the next year or even in the future,” said Lacy Bramlett, operations manager at Ober Mountain Raft & Zipline. “If it’s not a good business model in the next couple of years, it could be something that isn’t sustainable in the long haul.”
Ober Mountain didn’t receive as much damage from the flood, only losing two zipline posts sent across the river by the flood. The business has transitioned to a community resource outpost for the time being.
But as for the return of rafting, Poleet estimates it could take “months to a year” before the river is even safe to use again.
Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter @specialk2real.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee rafting businesses on Pigeon River wiped out by Helene flood
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