100 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway are shut down. When will it reopen? Nobody knows

The Blue Ridge Parkway has 100 miles of gaps in it just in time for the holiday weekend, including large sections near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

National Park Service officials posted a video late Tuesday showing travelers “a sample” of the downed trees and debris that continue to litter the roadway after an ice storm that hit the scenic highway last week.

The video shows an area between Roanoke and Mabry Mill, Virginia, park officials said on Facebook. Sections in both North Carolina and Virginia are closed.

Fall -- when leaves are changing color -- is one of the busiest times of the year on the parkway, which attracted 16 million visitors last year, according to National Park Service data.

Park service officials say multiple crews are working to clear the road, but they have not posted an expected completion date.

Check here for an up-to-date map of closed sections, which currently include the North Carolina stretch between Courthouse Valley Overlook and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Closures were put in place last week after a Nov. 14 ice storm, but conditions worsened days later when the heavy ice, saturated soils and winds combined to bring down even more trees, said the park service in a tweet.

Among the areas already cleared is the Tanbark Tunnel (at Mile Post 374), which was littered by falling rock after steel netting broke loose during a rock slide, said a Nov. 16 park service Facebook post.

The netting has been anchored back in place and the tunnel reopened, officials said in the post.

It has been a troubled year for the parkway’s North Carolina section, including an extensive rock slide in February near the Stoney Fork Valley Overlook, flooding in June due to heavy rains, and more downed trees in September due to Hurricane Florence.

This story was originally published November 21, 2018 at 12:14 PM.