When devastating floods ripped through Jamestown, Colorado, in 2013, the rural mountain town’s school was physically unscathed. But students lost their homes. The town’s “patriarch” was killed. And the school building was converted to aid in disaster recovery.
It was only on the last day of the school year that kids were able to return to the school and celebrate graduation.
“It was a huge impact to be out of your home. I think just trying to care for the students, understanding that the biggest thing we could do for them was to support them emotionally and the families,” said Scott Boesel, the principal at the time. “Education was almost secondary for the first few months after the flood.”
As similar isolated but tight-knight rural communities in the southeast recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, educators and families are working together to address the physical and emotional consequences of the natural disasters. From flooding in Kentucky to fires in California to hurricanes in Puerto Rico, disasters everywhere have tested schools in recent years. Some facets of these crises are urgent but relatively short-term concerns. Others persist for years. But they are interconnected.
Helene and Milton have reportedly caused hundreds of deaths and devastating damage to property and livelihoods that’s still being tallied — one estimate has put the cost of recovering from Helene at $34 billion. Many schools and districts are still struggling with returning to class. Around 30 North Carolina school districts were impacted by the storms, according to the North Carolina Association of School Boards.
Most of the schools affected in North Carolina have “opened back up” but others have indicated that they are closed indefinitely, said Leanne Winner, the association’s executive director, late last week.
