A massive rock slide has blocked all four lanes of I 40 on the North Carolina Tennessee border at mile marker 2.6. The slide happened overnight being reported around 2am Sunday. Unknown is if there were any vehicles in the area when the slide happened and if they are buried under the massive amounts of rocks.
North Carolina Department of Transportation report that it could be a couple of months before the highway is cleared and reopened to traffic.
This is an important travel route for western NC and important to the local economy that depends on tourism. The detour around this slide is one hundred and forty miles!!! While there is never a good time for something like this to happen during the fall when people are traveling to see the fall colors and not to mention that Thanksgiving travel will be upon us soon.
UPDATE
A few new videos shot from the scene has been added that give you a pretty good idea how massive a slide this is. It would appear that the remoteness and the early morning hours kept anyone to be passing by at the time the slide took place.
