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News Local News Merchants brace for worst, hope for best
Merchants brace for worst, hope for best
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 National Park Service employees clear debris created by a rockslide on Big Oak Flat Road in Yosemite National Park. Alex MacLean/Union Democrat, copyright 2012
Park Service officials as of this morning were unprepared to offer any estimate of when the road will be repaired. A roughly 40-foot stretch of the lane entering Yosemite Valley was wiped out when a boulder the size of a two-story house cut loose from a hillside about 11:30 p.m. Sunday. Park officials said Big Oak Flat Road will be closed “indefinitely” between Foresta and El Portal roads. As a result, access to Yosemite Valley — the park’s lodging hub and a launching point for popular attractions like the Mist and Yosemite Falls trails — is restricted to highways 140 and 41. The closure could be in effect for weeks or even months depending on the extent of the damage, said park spokesman Scott Gediman on Monday. Park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said its too early to tell exactly how long the closure will last because crews were still clearing debris so engineers can assess the damage. The park is hoping to release more information by the end of the week, she said. The National Park Service is responsible for repair costs, but the Federal Highway Administration could step in if the damage is extensive, Cobb said. Matt Schmitz, director of state programs for the Federal Highway Administration’s California Division, said he’s not sure the damage to Big Oak Flat Road would merit emergency relief money. “We’ve got a lot of these incidents that are big deals to localized travel, but they aren’t so unusual that we stop everything and put everything into it,” he said. The possibility of the closure cutting into the beginning of the tourist season worries many business owners along Highway 120. “Most of my business right now is local. But if it lasts into the summer, that will hurt us big time,” said Eng Lim, owner of PJ’s Cafe and Pizzeria in Groveland. Raj Patel, who helps run the family-owned Yosemite Westgate Lodge, just outside of the park’s west entrance, said he’s heard about rockslides affecting other park-entry corridors, but never along Highway 120. In 2006, the Ferguson Rock Slide blocked access to the park through Highway 140. Temporary bridges were constructed about four months later to bypass the 600 feet of damaged highway, but they prohibited vehicles more than 28 feet long from crossing. The bridges weren’t modified until 2008. Patel said the January and February months are typically the slowest of the year, before the tourism season starts picking back up in March, so he is hoping for a quick end to the road closure. “I think a couple weeks we could absorb,” he said. “We could be hurt pretty bad if it’s a couple months.” Roberta Nelson, part owner of Big Oak Restaurant and Bar in Big Oak Flat, said the community also suffered big tourism losses during summer 2009, when the Big Meadow Fire restricted travel on Highway 120 — Tioga Road inside the park. It burned more than 7,000 acres in the park. Nelson and others invested in the restaurant to help keep it open after losing business during the peak of the tourism season, she said. “All of the people in this community like to come together to help their local businesses,” Nelson said. Yosemite Chamber of Commerce members were urging local business owners to stay positive and remind tourists of other activities in the area. Peggy Mosley, owner of Groveland Hotel, said there’s still golfing, horseback riding and shopping available to tourists in Groveland. “Here is an incredible opportunity for people to take advantage of all the other wonderful things there are to do in our corridor,” she said. Jeannie Tasker, marketing director for Hotel Charlotte, said that other attractions such as the Hetch Hetchy Dam, Tuolumne and Merced Groves and Crane Flat area remain accessible. “The message we as a town need to get across is that there’s a lot more to Yosemite than the valley,” she said. |
