Dollywood Reopens After Being Forced To Close Due To Flash Flooding
X / joshbrownwx, Dollywood
On Sunday, July 28, a severe thunderstorm struck the Pigeon Forge area, leading to a flash flood at Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park.
Pictures taken by visitors revealed water rapidly flowing through different areas of the park, such as stores, restaurants, and the parking lot. In some parts of the theme park, the water reached waist-deep levels.
Heavy rains caused flooding concerns at #Dollywood in #PigeonForgeTN earlier today! #wxtwitter
Courtesy of Chris Kilby pic.twitter.com/2r2Z1uQFaW
— (Amateur) Meteorologist Josh Brown (@joshbrownwx) July 29, 2024
With the assistance of emergency officials and park staff, guests at Dollywood were safely evacuated from the theme park. Following the incident, the park released an official statement on social media, reporting that only one minor injury occurred during the evacuation process.
Please see this park update for Sunday, July 28, and Monday, July 29. pic.twitter.com/NnK442kKuq
— Dollywood Parks & Resorts (@Dollywood) July 29, 2024
Although the flash flooding was severe, Dollywood was able to reopen the following day, thanks to a dedicated team of overnight workers.
Dollywood’s Vice President of Marketing, Pete Owens, stated that the cleanup took less than half a day of overnight work, allowing the park to reopen its doors the following Monday afternoon.
“Literally in less than 12 hours the maintenance was able to go through, repair a section in the parking lot and clean this entire park up,” Owens told WVLT News.
The progress is impressive given the extent of the damage caused by the massive amount of water, especially considering that the area where the park is located isn’t accustomed to such severe flooding.
“That’s a 100 year flood and an act of God,” Owens added. “The infrastructure here and in the city of Pigeon Forge had no way to be able to handle that much water in that short of time.”
The theme park has now returned to its regular summer schedule, operating from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
