Soot swept up: Business unharmed by wildfires set to reopen

(AP) — Chirping and beeping filled the air as Marion Paul fired up her Gatlinburg video arcade Monday, the first time she's seen her business since deadly wildfires set much of the city ablaze a week ago.

While several Gatlinburg areas resembled a war zone, the main business drag in this popular Tennessee tourist site was spared by the fast-moving flames.

A week ago on Monday, hurricane-force winds whipped up fires that killed 14 people and damaged or destroyed almost 1,700 buildings in the Great Smoky Mountains tourist region, carving a selective path that turned some buildings to rubble and at times left their neighbors unharmed.

[...] just a short distance away from the downtown area, white smoke still billowed Monday from the scrap pile that remained of the Alamo Steakhouse in Gatlinburg.

[...] this weekend, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said a mass text message telling people to evacuate was never sent.

TEMA says the local command post requested the message at 8:30 p.m. last Monday, but communication between agencies was lost because of disabled phone, internet and electrical services.