Hurricanes and wildfires are closing schools. How can students get back on track?

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With no power and drinking water scarce, the school district in Asheville, North Carolina, cannot welcome students right now. But it is helping in other ways after Hurricane Helene. It sent food from its freezers and pantries to emergency shelters. Its bus garage donated fuel to help run generators at local nursing homes. A high school football field served as a landing zone for helicopters.

So far, authorities have reported more than 200 deaths associated with the storm across Southeastern states. And hundreds of people remained unaccounted for.

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As the world faces more extreme weather, what should preparing for education in the aftermath of a natural disaster look like?

The complicated task ahead – educating children whose families and communities have been affected – underscores a reality that experts say is playing out daily worldwide. The World Bank estimates that at least 404 million children around the globe experienced a school closure associated with extreme weather events between January 2022 and June 2024. Increasingly observers are calling for heightened awareness about weather-related learning disruptions and ways to mitigate academic and emotional harm.

In Asheville, educators are focused on supporting students.

“These kids are going to grow up to, I hope, be extremely resilient adults,” says Kimberly Dechant, the district’s chief of staff. “… But it’s unfortunate that these are the experiences that they have to have to build that resiliency.”

In hurricane-ravaged western North Carolina, the schools have provided a necessary lifeline.

Asheville City Schools emptied its freezers and pantries so food could be sent to emergency shelters. Its bus garage donated fuel to help run generators at local nursing homes. A high school football field morphed into a landing zone for helicopters. And T-Mobile set up a Wi-Fi and charging station in a middle school parking lot.

“Right now, it’s about giving resources,” says Kimberly Dechant, chief of staff for the roughly 4,000-student district in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

As the world faces more extreme weather, what should preparing for education in the aftermath of a natural disaster look like?

The complicated task ahead – educating children whose families and communities have been starkly affected by extreme weather – underscores a reality that experts say is playing out daily worldwide. As climate events intensify, more schools are closing either temporarily or for prolonged periods of time.

The United States alone has been a case study in recent weeks. Thousands of miles west of Hurricane Helene’s path, wildfires have triggered school closures in California, Oregon, and Nevada.

The torrential rain and wind brought by the hurricane one week ago wiped out roads, buildings, power lines, cell phone towers, and water system infrastructure – along with entire towns – in this mountainous region. So far, authorities have reported more than 200 deaths associated with the storm across several states. And hundreds of people remained unaccounted for as of Thursday.

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