It’s been just over a year since Helene swept through Western North Carolina, leaving a trail of destruction that has yet to be fully repaired.
In Watauga County, students missed nearly a month of school due to the damage. And for those who lost housing, or whose rural mountain roads now get washed out any time it rains, coming to school has become more of a challenge.
In a three-part series exploring chronic absenteeism in the region, WFDD’s Amy Diaz spoke with the school social workers helping students get to class, and above all, recover from the storm.
Amplified anxiety
Last October, Watauga County High School students performed an original play titled “Surge.”
“The water came so fast. It roared. It rushed. It rattled. It took our church, our farm, our shop, our home," students said in unison on stage, telling a story that was far from fiction.
Helene was the deadliest U.S. hurricane since Katrina.
Over the past week, students commemorated the anniversary of the storm by wearing shirts to class that said: “Watauga Strong.”
They’re resilient. But research shows that young people who experience natural disasters are not only impacted by immediate trauma and harm, but are also more likely to struggle with mental and physical health issues, as well as trouble learning and lower attendance.
And it’s no wonder why. Heather Holbrook, a school social worker in the district, describes what some of the students she works with are facing.
“Their house was gone, flooded, deep flooded, and so they couldn't live there anymore, and they've been homeless ever since, really," Holbrook says. "They've not found housing.”
She says they’d already dealt with some anxiety before Helene, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
“And this just really just amplified all that," Holbrook says. "And so they really needed, honestly, support about every day.”
The district has provided a lot of that over the last year. In the immediate aftermath of Helene, schools offered emergency child care, food and water and showers. Social workers like Holbrook reached out to families to deliver supplies and make sure they were alright.
Students, families and school staff have grown to trust and rely on each other.
Because of those relationships, Holbrook says, for the most part, students were eager to come back to class after Helene. It’s just that for some families, getting to school was and continues to be a lot harder than it used to be.
Transportation barriers
“To this day, there are still places where the road is in bad shape. Bridges have not been rebuilt," Holbrook says. "People are driving through cow pastures to circumvent where the bridge used to be to get to a road to get out.”
And when it rains, it’s even worse.
On a typical day at Hardin Park Elementary, for example, about 20-30 students are absent. But during a period of heavy rain back in May, that number jumped to 60 because roads were flooded.
“And if the bus can't get to them, they cannot come to school," Holbrook says. "That is still an ongoing struggle.”
Maria Osborne, the Hardin Park social worker, knew that was the case for one of the families she works with. They have a child who receives special education services at school.
She can’t always do something about a family’s transportation problems. But this time, she did.
“We sent out a Google Doc to all of the staff here, and we got a county car and people signed up for different shifts where two people will go in the morning to pick up this family, and two people will go in the afternoons to drop them off," Osborne says.
She’d initially been worried that there wouldn’t be enough drivers. But what she found was the opposite.
“We had more people that were willing to help than shifts available. And also, when we took the county car, we could send food boxes home with this family," Osborne says. "We could send extra resources. We could send clothing and things that a second grader wouldn't be able to carry on the bus by himself.”
And this isn’t a rare service.
Meeting people where they are
Osborne’s office is filled to the brim with supplies she can pack up and bring to families anytime they need them.
“We have backpacks and blankets up there," Osborne says, pointing to a shelf. "I have sleeping bags. I actually have a couple air mattresses right now. All things that were donated during the hurricane, and things that I've given out to families that just don't have housing."
She estimates about 60 families in the district were displaced due to Helene, which exacerbated an existing housing crisis in the area.
Some are living in hotels, shelters, or with relatives. Others are still dealing with lingering damage and mold in their homes. And when heavy rain hit months after Helene, some houses were flooded again.
The social worker at Watauga High School, Jenn Wandler, says that happened to one of the families at her school. The mother reached out to her after they’d gotten to know each other when Helene hit.
“And she's like, “This is what happened. We've been up cleaning all night. You know, my student’s not going to be at school today. I'm just going to let them sleep,'" Wandler says.
She was less concerned about the student’s attendance that day and more concerned about their well-being. When she talks to students about these experiences, this is what she says:
“Your education is important, but we also want to make sure you're safe, physically, mentally and emotionally. And if we can find ways to support that, then hopefully we're also supporting academics.”
The social workers say they try to meet people where they are.
The phrase is usually figurative. But in Watauga County, it’s literal, too.
Whether it's meeting in the hallway at school, or right on their doorstep with a box of food, a warm coat and a ride.