I have many friends in North Carolina and Georgia fighting the fires. I pray for the safety of my fellow firefighters and thank them for their efforts!
From their reports, and based on what other information I have been able to glean, some big stretches of the trail are getting hit hard by fire. Some landmarks have been damaged or destroyed and the trail experience in the south will be forever changed.
I had the good fortune to hike Yellowstone a few years after the fires of '88, and I witnessed how quickly nature rebuilds. But, for those of us hiking northbound next spring, it's going to be a sobering experience hiking through large areas of freshly burnt forest.