A recovery marathon: WNC schools still feeling the effects of Helene even after reopening

Rutherford County Schools welcomed students back to the classroom two weeks ago, about two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit. But students at Pinnacle Elementary School in the town of Rutherfordton are still surrounded by memories of Helene’s impact.

Stumps remain of the four large trees that once lined the school’s autoroute. And inside the building, in an old computer lab and two additional classrooms, principal Ashley Twitty and her team operate a food pantry and clothing closet for students and families dealing with damaged homes and ongoing trauma.

Thanks to community support, Twitty has collected enough items to fill an extra classroom for storage. The school regularly sends students home checklists so families can select the items they need, and Twitty and her team work to fulfill those orders. The operation does not involve teachers; it’s important to let them continue their work in the classroom, Twitty said.

And while she knows it can’t last forever, she hopes to get enough donations to keep it going until spring.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Pinnacle Elementary became a hub of relief activity, with Twitty and her team mobilizing to provide community members with clean water, ice, showers and even shelter to pay for laundromats.

But Twitty said the outreach was still needed even after classes resumed. Pinnacle is the westernmost school in the district and comes from communities in the hard-hit areas of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock. At least two students lost everything they owned, Twitty said.

“I firmly believe that a child cannot learn unless his basic needs are met,” says Twitty. “They need to be fed. They must be dressed. They need to feel safe.”

Educators across the state are trying to strike a delicate balance as they reopen after Helene. They aim to make up lost ground while ensuring that students’ basic needs are met.

“There are a few in different classes that I work with who are still in a displacement situation and maybe they’re living with a relative or something like that,” said Andeena Torvinen, a teaching assistant at Pinnacle. “So that’s quite a distraction, especially for the smaller ones.”

Ra’chelle Roberson, parent of 9-year-old twins at Pinnacle Elementary, also worries about those distractions. She spent the night of the storm huddled with her children in the walk-in closet of their Lake Lure home. The second floor of their home was damaged and the next day the house was surrounded by fallen trees.

“It worried my daughter so much that she actually gave herself a cardiac arrhythmia during this whole thing,” Roberson said. “So it’s been tough times to say the least, being without power for 15 days.”

When school started again, her children had to get ready in the dark, stepping over power cords connected to noisy generators. Once the immediate impact of the storm passed, Roberson began to worry about raising her children.

“You’re worried about how long we’ll be out?” Roberson said. “And you know, what impact this is going to have on them, and especially the trauma of the storm – how can they do that? focus on, you know, math and reading?

Dealing with trauma lightly

With that in mind, schools have proceeded carefully. Many spent the first few days in class simply trying to decompress the students. For example, Pinnacle held spirit days, such as a pajama day, designed to help students feel comfortable at school again.

In McDowell County, public schools reopened on October 9. Superintendent Tracy Grit said teachers focused on lighter activities for the first few days and have slowly transitioned back to learning.

But Grit says not all students have the same needs. The Old Fort Elementary School was severely damaged, so the students are being taught at another facility. The district purchased new virtual curriculum software to help Old Fort teachers whose materials were destroyed. And there always remains the concern about what students will face when they leave school grounds.

“This was a lot of days in a row. And it’s also the trauma factor when the children come back. How focused can they be on learning if they’re still worried about what’s going on at home?,” Grit said. “So we’re just taking it day by day.”

There are also concerns about what will happen months from now, when the flow of aid dries up, Grit said. The county could face a shortfall in property tax revenue because of the lost homes — which could impact education funding. JW Kelley, president of McDowell Technical Community College, says he is concerned about the resources that will be available to students and schools in the coming months.

“Right now it’s a sprint, and eventually that sprint will be done and now we’ll start the recovery marathon,” Kelley said. “And mental health will be part of that.”

At Pinnacle, Twitty also worries about the long-term impact of the storm, just a few years after COVID closures forced students out of school for years. Still, she says there’s a lot to be optimistic about.

“Covid has separated us somewhat, and this brings us together. Where we were quite isolated and learning in isolation due to Covid, this brings us together.”

But Twitty still worries, especially about how young elementary school students will react the next time there is a storm.