HAYWOOD COUNTY, N.C. ( WHNS /WVLT) - A portion of I-40 in North Carolina to the Tennessee state line is officially set to reopen to traffic. According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the interstate will reopen on Saturday, March 1 with one lane in each direction at 35 miles per hour through the narrow lanes.

Five months after Hurricane Helene severed a critical Appalachian freight corridor, a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 40 through North Carolina’s Pigeon River Gorge reopened Saturday.

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A stretch of Interstate 40 through the western North Carolina mountains is reopening to traffic this weekend, months after Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding collapsed portions of the road, partially restoring the major travel connection with eastern Tennessee.

North Carolina is still rebuilding after Hurricane Helene‘s devastation, but a key piece of infrastructure partially reopened over the weekend. In the western part of the Tar Heel State, parts of various roadways vital for interstate travel and commerce,

Secretary of State Marco Rubio threw a tantrum in an interview with ABC News after This Week presenter George Stephanopoulos claimed the Trump administration had “taken steps to placate Putin.” Rubio was fuming as he dodged questions from Stephanopoulos and made an eyebrow-raising comparison between the war in Ukraine to conflicts in the Middle East.