Valle Crucis, North Carolina – In the hills of Watauga County in western North Carolina, the ride for students at Valle Crucis Elementary School was filled with excitement Friday. They were among several thousand North Carolina students returning to school for the first time since then Hurricane Helene tore through parts of the state about a month ago, blazing a path of destruction.
“I was worried about them because of the hurricane,” one student from Valle Crucis said of his classmates. “And I was super happy, super happy to see them.”
Helene filled Valle Crucis Elementary, a K-12 school, with four feet of muddy water and flooded the school buses parked outside the school. As a result, classes are temporarily held in an old conference center about a mile from the damaged school.
“Students, teachers and families have experienced trauma,” said Leslie Alexander, superintendent of Watauga County Schools. “Getting children back is the first step towards normality, but we have to realize that people have been through a lot.”
When Helene struck, 459 schools in 28 North Carolina counties were affected. Schools in five of those districts remain closed. Some may not open until early November.
Many students still carry a heavy mental burden: the pain of losing a loved one or their home, or in some cases both. At least 98 people died by Helene in North Carolina, according to figures compiled by CBS News, and the hurricane was responsible for at least 217 deaths in six states.
Extra counselors were present at Watauga County schools on Friday for any staff and students who wanted to talk.
“The first few weeks I started to worry because I wasn’t seeing anyone, so it was really refreshing when I heard we were going back to school this week,” said 12-year-old Valle Crucis student Georgia.
Georgia was with her parents, James and Heather, when their home began to flood and their community was washed away.
“Then the rain stopped and we started walking around,” Heather said of her daughter. “She said, ‘I’m not learning academically at the moment, but I’m learning a lot about survival.’”
