Buncombe County Schools Superintendent Rob Jackson and Mars Hill University President Tony Floyd both used the same phrase to describe their corners of the state in the early days after Tropical Storm Helene tore through — an island. Whether Helene kept college students inside the bounds of campus or K-12 students outside of classroom walls, “island” encapsulates what so many communities felt as they battled the historic storm.
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As the one-year anniversary nears since Helene devastated Western North Carolina, school districts and colleges in the region are navigating how to move forward while remembering the impact the storm had on their communities.
Initial challenges
When recalling the first days after the storm, a thread between all schools was the communication challenges due to a lack of internet and phone service, and the fear that the storm had claimed lives of those in their communities.
Superintendent of Watauga County Schools Leslie Alexander said for the first few days, she couldn’t locate the people she works most closely with and speaks to every day. After a frightening week, she was able to reconnect with her team and verify that all students and teachers were accounted for.
Watauga missed 17 days of school due to Helene, and Alexander said they would have certainly been out longer if the county hadn’t gotten creative with bus routes. Instead of sending buses on their usual routes along what could be dangerous and unstable roads, Watauga created central stops throughout the district.
“Mountainous roads are not the best on a good day, and we had many roads and bridges that were washed out,” she said. “So in order for us to come back to school, we had to determine community stops that parents would bring their kids to, and then we would transport the students from the community stop to school.”
Buncombe County Schools were closed for about a month, and the logistical challenges of reopening were “just about overwhelming,” Jackson said. Seven of its schools were severely impacted from playgrounds to media centers to classrooms.
Assistant Superintendent of Haywood County Schools Graham Haynes said they missed around 11 days of school. School buildings faced few damages aside from athletic facilities which enabled the county to get students back as quickly as possible. Haywood also implemented community bus stops to limit transportation dangers.
Provost and Dean of Faculty at Warren Wilson College Jay Roberts recalled the earliest days after Helene hit. Two bridges provide access to Warren Wilson’s Swannanoa campus, both of which were washed out, leaving the campus isolated for several days.
Warren Wilson backs up to the Swannanoa River, which experienced significant flooding with the river cresting at 26.1 feet. Roberts said 60 buildings experienced flood or roof damage, and FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers helped remove 70,000 cubic meters of debris.
When Floyd woke up after the storm and assessed the immediate damage around his home just minutes from Mars Hill’s campus, he thought that the storm must not have been too bad.
“And then within minutes, my phone started blowing up,” he said. “Boy, was I wrong. Our neighbors all around Mars Hill had really been destroyed.”
Mars Hill lost power but never water, and it had almost the entire student body on campus. Floyd had encouraged students to stay put rather than evacuate during dangerous conditions, although most eventually left after the storm had passed to be with their families.
President of Montreat College Paul Maurer said its total losses are north of $8 million as a result of 10 compromised buildings and several athletic facilities. Its fitness center was hit the hardest, with Maurer describing its current state as “a shell” as they wait to complete the near-total renovations as necessitated by the five feet of flood waters that ravished the building.
Montreat opened back to students just short of a month after Helene hit, which Maurer attributed to a combination of the hard work of the Montreat community and factors out of their control that worked out in their favor — such as the town of Montreat’s individualized water system that was able to be preemptively shut down to minimize damage.
Maurer said some criticized the college for opening too quickly, but all signs pointed to it being safe to do so. He also found it important to make good on the college’s agreement with its students.
“Our priority was crystal clear. We have a covenant with our students. They’re here for an education. They have paid for an education,” he said.
“They have plans to graduate or to finish college on time, and to lose a college semester is an enormously disruptive reality for any individual student. And so we just made the decision, I made the decision, that everything we did would be to try to salvage the semester and to do so face-to-face.”
Recovery process for students, schools
The Watauga schools’ biggest property loss was the Valle Crucis School, which serves pre-K through 8th grade and saw 46,000 of its 66,000 square feet flooded. Fortunately a new school was already in the process of being built with a target opening date of December 2024, though it has not been completed yet.
In the meantime, students, faculty and staff have been split across three separate “campuses” throughout the community. This has been the biggest challenge facing the district, but Alexander hopes to begin the second quarter of the school year in the new, unified location.
“We hope that opening that new building would be sort of a fresh start to the future for our county, and just looking ahead and moving forward,” she said.
Haynes said Haywood learned a lot from Tropical Storm Fred in 2021, which caused them $300 million in damage. When Helene was on the horizon, the district did its best to be proactive. This caused their recovery time from Helene to be faster and more streamlined, he said.
In fact, while Haywood is nearing the end of its Helene recovery and closing out operations with FEMA, Haynes said they are still waiting on recovery funds for damage done by Fred.
The wait for funds is not a unique story. Montreat is currently battling its insurance broker to collect what the college believes it is owed for the damages.
While the initial money came quickly and early, it later slowed and eventually stopped altogether. Now the FEMA funds have run their course, and the college is expecting its insurance to cover another $1.7 million, Maurer said.
Burke County Schools missed nine days of instruction, and its primary hurdle was the wait for power restoration. Spokesperson Cheryl Shuffler said most of the damage was limited to debris and flooding of the athletic fields.
There was an estimated $2 million in damages to Burke schools, primarily to its athletic fields and field houses. The baseball field still needs some work, but Shuffler said it should be as good as new by baseball season.
Burke realized how fortunate it had been compared to other counties, so much of its time and energy was spent helping neighbors recover after the initial days of the storm.
When it was finally time to reopen Buncombe County Schools a month after the storm, Jackson was feeling the weight of what his community had just endured, leading his district to be on the receiving end of neighborly good will.
While Jackson knew he needed his teachers to teach and his students to learn, he wasn’t oblivious to the trauma many of them experienced. So when school districts across the state reached out to ask what they could do to help, he had one request — send counselors.
“I’m so very grateful that 53 school systems, from here in Western North Carolina — the far western part of the state wasn’t as impacted — all the way to the coast, sent to us 263 school counselors and school social workers who were here those first few days to be here for our students and staff,” Jackson said. “That was such a gift.”
Mars Hill suspended classes for two weeks, but it never closed residence halls or other necessary facilities.
Two residence halls received new roofs over the summer, but some parts of campus are still waiting for repairs for damage done during the storm and some collateral damage like collapsed sewer lines, which Floyd attributes to the excessive pressure put on by water and flooding.
Even while Mars Hill’s campus was recovering, they were helping others do the same. The university used its facilities to offer showers to the community and first responders, and Mars Hill student athletes were recognized by the NCAA for their contributions to Helene recovery earlier this year.
Warren Wilson’s identity as a work college proved true during Helene, with students making preparations before the storm hit and later jumping in to help the recovery where they could. The repercussions for the campus could have been worse if it weren’t for their contributions, Roberts said.
“We did lose a few livestock, but not as many as we could have because we had our great students working tirelessly to make sure that the preparations before the storm were good. And then during the storm itself, we did some additional makeshift stuff to make sure things were safe and tidied up,” he said.
“So that, to me, is one of the biggest things from our point of view as a work college. What both amazed us, but also reminded us of how special this place is, is how much students immediately contributed to the aftermath and the recovery.”
For school leaders, getting students back in school was about more than a return to learning. It was about being able to meet their basic needs again and beginning to heal from what their community had experienced.
“We told our principals, just celebrate the kids. Be happy that they’re back,” Haynes said.
“So the first day, we probably didn’t do much teaching or learning. It was just, ‘Hey, we’re so happy to have you back.’ We had celebrations. We had inflatables. We pulled out all the stops to make sure that the kids just knew how excited we were to have them in school, and they were happy to be back at school.”
Several districts were able to provide their students with resources even while schools were closed, no doubt a saving grace for many families that count on resources like free and reduced breakfast and lunch for their children.
Haynes recalled a Haywood principal who arrived at a student’s home shortly after the storm to deliver food. As the boy ran into the yard to greet his principal, he shouted victoriously to his family that he knew his school would come to help them.
“That’s a community,” Haynes said. “It’s what we do. We pull together and we make it happen.”
Holding space
As the one-year anniversary approaches, the overwhelming sentiment across school districts and universities is gratitude — for how their communities showed up for each other during the storm, for the recovery efforts that have reclaimed a sense of normalcy and for the ability to continue providing an education to students.
Each district and university is grappling with the one-year anniversary in a unique way.
In Buncombe, Jackson said it’s important to not cause secondary trauma by focusing too much on the devastation that occurred. But he also knows that the anniversary could trigger strong emotions, and the district is preparing itself to meet those needs.
And just like it’s important to remember the loss, there were good works that deserve to be honored, too.
“We recognize that we saw some pretty special things in terms of the way that our community came together, and so many people from outside Buncombe County, across the state, across the country, came to our aid, and we’re very grateful for that and looking for ways to pay it forward,” Jackson said.
“But at the same time, we recognize how much loss occurred as well, and so we’re really trying to take almost a reverent approach to the date and being prepared to take care of our students and staff.”
Mars Hill will remember those lost during their chapel services, Floyd said. The university also wants to give thanks for how they were spared the brunt of the damage.
Warren Wilson has a week of events planned to observe the anniversary. It’s a time to both honor the loss and recognize the resilience of the community, Roberts said.
Warren Wilson is affiliated with the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities, but has an interfaith approach to spirituality on campus, and its honoring of the Helene anniversary reflects that.
Nontombi Naomi Tutu, daughter of theologian and anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, is speaking at Warren Wilson to the broader community on “Healing Ourselves and All of Creation.” The college is also hosting a blessing of the Swannanoa River, which Roberts said will help to see the river in a different context after the devastation.
He recalled a conversation with a biology professor at the college who resented phrasing the damage as something that the Swannanoa River did to the community, instead of seeing it as something that humans did to the river due to a lack of proper infrastructure.
“That is something that stays in my mind,” Roberts said. "As we build back better, and as we think about the devastating impacts of the flooding, just not forgetting the anthropogenic side of it.
“We have created the infrastructure, the development and the urban and rural planning that makes a disaster like this possible, and it’s our responsibility to take care of the river. It’s not the river’s responsibility to take care of us.”
Everyone is different in terms of how they handle adversity and trauma, Maurer said, so some may feel heavier around the anniversary than others. But some may also remember the storm as an experience where bonds formed and friendships deepened.
Regardless, Montreat will be approaching with a sense of gratitude. Despite Montreat’s damages, Maurer became emotional speaking about the way the college was spared the worst of what many endured at the hands of Helene — loss of their way of life, loss of those closest to them.
“We’ll take time to stop and remember and to pray and, frankly, to give thanks for God’s protection,” he said.
This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.