As communities devastated by Helene in western North Carolina work toward a post-storm recovery and dare to picture a return to normalcy, students in the Asheville area have started returning to classrooms.
Asheville operates an independent city school system in Buncombe County, where students went back to school Friday.
“Today has been a great start,” Kimberly J. Dechant, chief of staff of Asheville City Schools told CNN. “Teachers were engaged in lessons where students have the opportunity to circle up and talk about what they experienced and process all of those emotions together.”
The district is focusing on its students’ mental well-being after everything they’ve been through, Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman said.
“We learned from Covid that we can’t just jump back in like everything’s normal,” she told CNN’s Amara Walker on Sunday. “So, we’ve developed lessons that are focusing on mental health, allowing students to share and express their feelings on what happened and how they’re going to move forward.”
Helene pummeled western North Carolina as a tropical storm almost exactly one month ago, causing devastating flood damage.
Over a three-day span, the storm dumped so much water over the southern Appalachians that it became a catastrophic, once-in-1,000 year rainfall event for the region, the National Weather Service said.
All Asheville City Schools students are accounted for, and there were no deaths reported among the district’s nearly 3,900 students or its staff, Dechant said.
None of Asheville’s schools were damaged in the storm, Fehrman said, and all have electricity, internet and running water. But the water from the pipes hasn’t been deemed drinkable – so the school system has partnered with an aid organization to provide clean water.
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Martika Stansell and two of her children help pile debris in front of their flooded house in Canton, North Carolina, on Thursday, October 3.
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Helicopters use a field in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as a landing zone Thursday to ferry supplies and crews to areas made inaccessible by Helene.
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A man helps clean out a home's flooded crawlspace in Cruso, North Carolina, on Thursday.
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A residential area is flooded in Swannanoa on Thursday.
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A relief group climbs up the side of a hill as they help near Bat Cave, North Carolina, on Thursday. The group was tasked with clearing roads and checking on people isolated because of Helene.
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Volunteers load supplies at Ridgeline Heating and Cooling, which was turned into a relief area and community coordination center in Bills Creek, North Carolina, on Thursday.
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A police car is stuck in mud in a flooded area of Lake Lure, North Carolina, on Wednesday, October 2.
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Homes are damaged in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
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People help run a volunteer local community care center in Barnardsville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
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A marina is filled with debris in Lake Lure on Wednesday.
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Emily Ogburn, right, hugs her friend Cody Klein after he brought her a meal in Swannanoa on Wednesday.
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Friends help Sam Soughail, third from left, clear out his Casablanca Cigar Bar in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, October 1.
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Van Hutchins, right, hands Dennis Rector a family photo album that survived the flooding of his wife's business, the Penland & Sons Department Store, in Marshall, North Carolina.
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Power line poles lean in Lake Lure on Tuesday.
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A search-and-rescue team looks for victims in deep mud Tuesday in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
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Andy Brown takes a break on top of what remains of a tree that destroyed his SUV in Augusta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
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Len Frisbee dumps a wheelbarrow of dirt as he helps with cleanup in Hot Springs, North Carolina, on Tuesday.
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People evacuate by foot on Highway 64, near the Bat Cave community of North Carolina, on Monday, September 30.
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A helicopter flies near damaged buildings in Bat Cave on Monday.
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Linda Bandy, left, and Carissa Sheehan clean up inside the International Moulding frame shop in Morganton, North Carolina, on Monday.
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Janice Whitley hands her brother Terry Wilson some salvaged items while they remove valuables from their flooded home in Old Fort on Sunday, September 29.
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People wait in line to access gasoline in Fletcher, North Carolina, on Sunday.
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Melinda Segassie wheels possessions she salvaged from her home in Steinhatchee, Florida, on Sunday.
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This home in Tampa, Florida, was destroyed by fire during the storm.
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Workers clean and gut a flooded property in Steinhatchee on Sunday.
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Meta Gatschenberger surveys the remains of her collapsed house in Boone, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 28.
North Carolina Department of Transportation
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People gather at a fire station to access Wi-Fi on Saturday after Helene moved through Asheville.
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People inspect flood damage in Asheville on Saturday.
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An area of Asheville is flooded on Saturday.
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Elmira Glover sits on her porch after taking the first look inside her home, which had been completely flooded in Steinhatchee.
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Boats displaced by Hurricane Helene sit in front of homes in Treasure Island, Florida, on Saturday.
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Light filters into a room of a home that was destroyed by the hurricane in Horseshoe Beach, Florida.
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Customers crowd a supermarket aisle for bottled water after widespread damage disrupted water supplies in Boone on Saturday.
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Buildings are left damaged by the storm in Valdosta, Georgia, on Saturday.
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People walk among debris from their family's beach house in Horseshoe Beach on Saturday.
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The Laurel Fork Road bridge is destroyed by floodwaters in Vilas, North Carolina, on September 27.
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Cassandra Randall, right, is hugged by Jessica Downey inside a damaged Maddie's grocery store in Steinhatchee on September 27.
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People work on power lines after Hurricane Helene passed offshore in Crystal River, Florida, on September 27.
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Hailey Morgan, right, surveys the damage to her flooded home after returning with her children, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Crystal River on September 27.
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An aerial view shows a flooded and damaged area following Hurricane Helene in Steinhatchee on September 27.
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A person walks into fast-flowing waters to assist a stranded driver in a stretch of flooded road on the outskirts of Boone on September 27.
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People use buckets to remove water from a home near Peachtree Creek in Atlanta on September 27 after Hurricane Helene brought heavy rain overnight.
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Sarah Cribbins and her son, Michael, cuddle their dog after being rescued from floodwaters in Crystal River on September 27.
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Debris is seen inside a Cedar Key, Florida, store on September 27.
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A tree crew cuts up large limbs that fell on East 49th Street in Savannah, Georgia, on September 27.
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An American flag sits in floodwaters in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, on September 27.
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A tree lies on a house in Valdosta, Georgia, on September 27.
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Candice Ocvil, left, and Jibri Tolen, right, row through flood waters in Atlanta on September 27.
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The aftermath of Hurricane Helene is seen in Cedar Key, Florida, on September 27.
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Candace Redwine surveys the damage after about 3 feet of water inundated her Spiceman Kitchen store in Tarpon Springs, Florida, on September 27.
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Flood water washes over Guy Ford Road bridge on the Watauga River in Sugar Grove, North Carolina, on September 26.
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In this screengrab taken from a
United States Coast Guard body cam, a man and his dog are seen being rescued after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off Sanibel Island, Florida, on September 26.
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Cars drive over the George G. Tapper Bridge before Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Port Saint Joe, Florida, on September 26.
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Guests put on ponchos at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, on September 26 as Hurricane Helene began bearing down.
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Carol Poulson uses her phone to document the impacts of Hurricane Helene as it builds offshore in St. Petersburg on September 26.
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A man walks through a flooded Times Square area of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on September 26.
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Cynthia Centeno, a Tallahassee resident, sits with her family inside a hurricane evacuation shelter at Fairview Middle School in Leon County, Florida, on September 26.
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Waves impact a house seawall in Eastpoint, Florida, on September 26.
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Charles Starling, a lineman with Team Fishel, walks by a row of electrical line trucks staged in a field in The Villages, Florida, on September 26.
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People work at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Florida, on September 26.
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A man crosses a flooded area on the coast of Gulfport, Florida, on September 26.
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Cars drive through a flooded street in St. Pete Beach on September 26.
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Hurricane Helene is seen in a satellite photo on September 26.
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A woman fills up a container with gas ahead of Helene's landfall in Cross City, Florida, on September 25.
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People in Guanimar, Cuba, traverse a flooded street in a boat on September 25.
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A Wakulla County firefighter speaks to residents of Panacea, Florida, while making note of those who were not evacuating on September 25.
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Storm damage from Helene is seen in Puerto Juarez, Mexico, on September 25.
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People fill up sandbags in Clearwater, Florida, on September 25.
“We have several students that lost family members. We have staff members who lost family members,” Fehrman said. “We really stick together in Asheville City Schools, we’re a smaller district and it’s nice that we all know each other and can lean in and support each other, but many of our students are still struggling to fill basic needs with their families.”
Between 15 and 20 families still use the district’s resource center just to get basic supplies, the superintendent said.
“Since the hurricane hit, a lot of work and thought have gone into a reopening plan. As of (last week), non-potable water service, power and internet is restored to all 45 schools,” Buncombe County Schools said in an announcement.
“We have started delivering drinking water for staff and students to all schools. Maintenance crews are finishing repair and restoration work, and Technology teams are reconnecting security and communication systems.”
Classes in Buncombe County are operating on a two-hour delay to allow bus drivers time to navigate new bus routes and community stops due to storm damaged and washed-out roads and bridges, the school district said.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity for students to see their smiling bus driver, or walk into school and see their favorite cafeteria staff member, their counselor, their principal, their favorite teacher. Our (Buncombe County Schools) teammates will reassure them, make them feel safe, and help them reconnect their school family,” Buncombe County Schools Superintendent Rob Jackson said in a statement Monday.
But not everyone is sure the time is right to go back to the classroom.
Candace Duke has three children in Buncombe County Schools and was torn about sending them back, she told CNN affiliate Spectrum News.
“Yeah, school’s important. They need to be in school, but I feel like they’re rushing into things,” she said.
“We started back to school on Friday. It was great to see all the students and staff again,” Robby Parker, a teacher and coach at North Buncombe High School said in a Facebook post. “The stories that was told were very powerful to hear. The healing continues. Buncombe county schools got it right. What a great school system to work in.”
Student support services are a key part of the reopening plan the school district said.
“Our Student Services team has been working equally hard to prepare for the emotional well-being of our students and staff,” the district said in its statement. “Thank you again for your grace and strength.”