A 26-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina reopened Monday, marking a major milestone in the state's recovery from Hurricane Helene , nearly a year after the historically devastating storm.

The National Park Service (NPS), which operates and maintains the 469-mile-long highway that is itself a national park, announced the reopening of a section from Asheville , North Carolina, to Mount Mitchell State Park.

The NPS said this project was the completion of an initial round of recovery projects underway to repair the numerous landslides that happened during and in the immediate aftermath of Helene.

That came the same day that North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein requested an additional $13.5 billion in additional aid from Congress. He estimated t

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