Our Stories: The massive rock slide that shut down I-40

A massive rock slide a little over a decade ago shut down I-40 for months. It also sent a 10News crew scrambling for cover, as motorists bailed out of their stranded vehicles and ran.

Reporter Patti McGeever and photojournalist Brian Holt got the assignment about 9 a.m. on July 1, 1997.

A rock slide at the Tennessee/North Carolina border had closed down Interstate 40 between Newport and western North Carolina, where it wound through the gorges, rock cuts, and tunnels.

By the time McGeever and Holt got there, crews were wrapping up clean-up of the rock slide. They were just about to reopen the highway to traffic.

McGeever and Holt went to work.

"And so there was a huge dump truck, and that would be our protection, I guess," McGeever remembered. "So he was set up right by the dump truck, and I was a few feet behind him. He was just taking pictures of the mountain."

That's when the mountain broke loose. First, a few rocks came sliding down. Then came a few more.

And then the side of the mountain came down, with a massive boulder heading for Holt, still rolling the camera.

"I just assumed it would stop on that side of the Interstate too, until it started picking up speed and then spinning, and then bouncing and then spinning. And that's when it bounced on over my head," Holt remembered.

The news crew set up in another location.

"And all of sudden, we heard this loud noise and dust. And that was when the rest of it started to come down," McGeever said. "And I knew we were in trouble when I saw the trooper hop in his cruiser and throw it in reverse and back up down the Interstate."

"But all these people in parked cars heard it and thought 'Oh my gosh,' and they bailed out of cars and started running in the opposite direction," McGeever said.

No one was injured in that slide, but it shut down the Interstate for months. Traffic was diverted through Newport on Highway 25-70, and massive backups were an every-day occurrence.

Some two-and-a-half months later, two lanes of the Interstate would reopen to traffic. Late in 1997, after the rock walls had been secured, all four lanes of I-40 were open.

"It takes awhile to get over those things. I thought about it every day. Every time I hear of a rock slide, I always think of that. And I don't look forward to having to go back to a rock slide ever again.

Holt is still a photojournalist at 10News. McGeever is now an independent television producer in Cincinnati.