Shock turns to anger in blaze
GATLINBURG, Tenn. — Charlotte Moore needed a phone charger.
“I’ll just get it at home,” she shrugged.
Then she remembered that her home was gone.
The realization came as she made the familiar drive up to the top of Laurel Mountain in the Roaring Fork neighborhood of Gatlinburg on Friday, where what lay ahead was anything but familiar. On the first day officials let property owners return to assess the damage from the wildfire that devastated their homes, the eastern Tennessee tourist destination was headed toward an uncertain future.
As people were allowed into the city, Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters raised the death toll to 13 and said the number of damaged buildings now approached 1,000. He also defended the response to the wildfires that spread rapidly Monday, saying it was not the time for “Monday morning quarterbacking.” He promised a full review later.
Gatlinburg residents and business owners, meanwhile, got their first look at the wildfire destruction Friday, and many walked around in a daze, sobbing.
They hugged each other and promised they would stay in touch.
“We love it up here so much,” said Gary Moore, Charlotte’s husband, his voice trembling. “We lost everything. But we’re alive, thank goodness. Our neighbors are alive, most of them. And we’re just so thankful for that.”
Every home they passed on the drive up was a pile of unrecognizable rubble. They stopped to console some neighbors — Scott and Tammy Sherrod — who were seeing what was left of their home for the first time. Scott calmly walked through what remained of the home he bought with a VA loan four years ago. Tammy sat among the ashes and cried.
Tammy and her daughter salvaged a few items, including a pottery coaster her daughter had made when she was a little girl. Half of it shined in bright colors, while the other half was charred black.
“That’s all we got,” Tammy said.
Tammy and her family had escaped the flames just in time Monday night. As she drove her car down the road, she placed her hand against the window for a moment but had to jerk it away because the heat had burned her.
“It was like the gates of hell opened up,” she said.
After days of waiting to see their homes, shock gave way to anger.
“The city sure could have done a better job of getting us out of here,” said Delbert Wallace, who lost his home. “When they got up that morning, when they seen that fire, we should have been on alert right then.”
Waters and other local officials said the fire moved so far so fast that it gave them little time to react.
