GATLINBURG, Tenn.: Residents and business owners in Gatlinburg got their first look at the wildfire destruction on Friday, and many walked around the once-bustling tourist city in a daze, sobbing.
They hugged each other and promised that they would stay in touch.
“We love it up here so much,” said Gary Moore, 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.”
A county mayor raised the death toll to 13 and said the number of damaged buildings now approached 1,000.
After days of waiting to see their homes, some of the shock began to give way to anger, and local authorities bristled when asked why they waited so long to order the evacuation.
“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.”
Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters and other officials noted the fire moved such a great distance so quickly it gave officials little time to react.
Once they did, it was nearly too late.
Waters said it was not the time for “Monday morning quarterbacking” and promised a full review later.
John Matthews of the Sevier County Emergency Management Agency said a text alert telling people to evacuate went out around 9 p.m. Monday. But by that time, wildfires were raging in the area.
Matthews said some people did not receive the message due to power outages and loss of cellphone reception.
Local officials, bowing to pressure from frustrated property owners, allowed people back into most parts of the city Friday.
“This is all that’s left of our house,” said Tammy Sherrod, standing with her husband in front of the rubble. “We had five minutes to get off this mountain. We got off with the clothes on our back. We got off with a few pictures.”
She found a coaster in the rubble that her 27-year-old daughter had made as a child. Half of it had bright colors and the other half was charred black. It still had her name, Brianna, written on the bottom in black marker.
The dead included a Memphis couple who was separated from their three sons during the wildfires. The sons — Jared, Wesley and Branson Summers — learned that their parents, Jon and Janet, had died as they were recovering in the hospital.
Other fatalities included a couple from Canada, 71-year-old Jon Tegler and 70-year-old Janet Tegler, and May Vance, who died of a heart attack after she was exposed to smoke.