The recent Gatlinburg and Sevier County wildfires have been a nightmare and the damage has been extreme. We now have a total of 14 people who have died because of the fire and over 1500 buildings in our area have been destroyed and that number may exceed 2000 by the time we have completed the tally. Dozens of primary residences have been consumed and we are still counting the damage. Nobody is talking dollars yet but I’m confident that the total value of the real estate lost will exceed $150,000,000.
In the wake of the wildfires, much more has been damaged. In addition to the lives lost and the real estate destroyed, we are facing the at least temporary loss of lots of jobs. If you work in the city limits, even though the damage to the downtown Gatlinburg area was truly minimal, those businesses haven’t been open for a week now. Many will not reopen in Gatlinburg for some time, including our own office:
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| Our office prior to the fire |
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| The same property after the fire |