Hurricane Helene displaced thousands of students. Some struggled to get back on track with school

SWANNANOA N C AP When -year-old Natalie Briggs visited the ruins of her home after Hurricane Helene she had to tightrope across a wooden beam to reach what was once her bedroom Knots of electrical wires were draped inside the skeleton of the house Months after the storm light filtered through breaks in the tarps over the windows All I could think of was This isn t my house stated Natalie who had been staying in her grandparents basement At school Natalie sometimes had panic attacks when she thought of her ruined home in Swannanoa There were particular points where I just didn t want people to talk to me about the house or just like talk to me at all Natalie reported Thousands of students across western North Carolina lost their homes a year ago when Helene hit with several of the majority of vicious floods landslides and wind ever seen in the state s Appalachian region once considered a environment haven Across the state more than students were identified as homeless as a direct aftermath of Helene according to state input obtained by The Associated Press While storm debris has been mostly cleared away the impact of the displacement lingers for the region s children Schools reopened long before a large number of students returned to their homes and their learning and well-being have yet to recover The phenomenon is increasingly common as natural disasters disrupt U S communities more frequently and with more ferocity The Associated Press is collaborating with Blue Ridge Inhabitants Radio Honolulu Civil Beat CalMatters and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters In the North Carolina mountains the challenge of recovery is especially acute After all numerous families in rural low-income areas already deal with challenges such as food insecurity and rent affordability revealed Cassandra Davis a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill citizens agenda professor I would almost argue that they don t get the opportunity to recover Davis commented Finding stable housing became all-consuming After Helene flooded her rental home in Black Mountain Bonnie Christine Goggins-Jones and her two teenage grandchildren had to leave behind nearly all their belongings They lost their bed clothes shoes their book bag she disclosed The family lived in a motel a leaky donated camper and another camper before moving into a new apartment in June Goggins-Jones a school bus aide at Asheville City Schools struggled to heat the camper during winter Her grandchildren kept going to school but it wasn t top of mind The area around Asheville western North Carolina s largest city still has a considerable housing shortage a year after the storm The family of America Sanchez Chavez had to split up to find housing Helene left their trailer home in Swannanoa uninhabitable and money from the Federal Crisis Management Agency wasn t enough to cover the renovations America and particular relatives went to stay at her grandmother s apartment while her older brother lived at a friend s house Eventually America moved with her mother to a room at a Black Mountain hotel where she works America stated she is still frightened by rain or thunder At one point when the rain in fact got like pretty bad I did get scared for a while she declared Helene damaged more than homes knocking out electricity and water for weeks if not months The destruction of local infrastructure also closed schools for large stretches of time and a barrage of snow days exacerbated the time out of class even more In rural Yancey County which has approximately residents students missed more than two months of school last year Displaced students spread across North Carolina After natural disasters it s common to see a surge in students living in unstable temporary arrangements such as sleeping on a couch staying in a shelter or doubling up with another family according to research from UCLA s Center for the Transformation of Schools Those arrangements qualify students as homeless under federal law In Puerto Rico more than students were identified as homeless in Hurricane Maria s aftermath during the - school year the examination exposed Hawaii saw a increase in its homeless pupil population following the Maui wildfires In Helene s aftermath trainee homelessness spiked in several hard-hit counties according to AP s analysis of details from the North Carolina Homeless Mentoring Plan Yancey County saw the region s highest percentage increase The number of homeless students went from in the - school year to last school year All but were homeless due to Helene Various students enrolled in other school systems at least temporarily Others never returned Terri Dolan of Swannanoa sent her two young children to stay with her parents in Charlotte ahead of the storm After seeing the extent of the devastation Dolan had them enroll in school there They stayed over a month before returning home My job is to make money for our family and their job is to go to school Dolan says she d consistently reported her kids Just because the school wasn t open here I felt like they needed to go to school and do their job Particular districts receive federal money for services such as transporting homeless students to their usual school buildings and providing tutoring under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act But districts must apply in a competitive process and they can t request more money this instant after a natural tragedy until the next application cycle Countless miss out on McKinney-Vento funding entirely Helene-impacted students made up at least a fifth of the homeless population in counties but only six counties received McKinney-Vento money last funding cycle Nationally only in school districts receives McKinney-Vento money due to limited funds reported Barbara Duffield executive director of Schoolhouse Connection a nonprofit that advocates for homeless students If there s a catastrophe it s going to involve districts that don t get money from McKinney-Vento Duffield revealed Housing instability has a lasting impact Gwendolyn Bode a pre-law scholar at Appalachian State University had to leave her mud-wrecked apartment complex after Helene Reported she couldn t get campus housing she unveiled an Airbnb where she could stay at until her FEMA housing application went through and then she moved into a hotel She felt like she was drowning as she tried to keep up with her classes and a part-time job I can t tell you what I learned Bode mentioned I can t even tell you when I went to class because mentally I wasn t there She discovered more stability after moving into an apartment for the spring semester For Natalie Briggs now the grief of losing almost everything coupled with the tight quarters in her grandparents basement sometimes got to her and to her mother Liz Barker Barker mentioned it felt like a time with no rules because there was so much to deal with on top of her job as a fitness care worker The circumstances sometimes led to friction But Barker declared overall she and Natalie had done pretty well together She s been a little bit more loving since all of this happened Barker mentioned radiating at her daughter I give her hugs and stuff Natalie mentioned and I ll tell her I love her more than I did The Associated Press schooling coverage receives financial assistance from multiple private foundations AP is solely responsible for all content Find AP s standards for working with philanthropies a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP org Source