Leading Through the Storm: How Schools Become Hubs of Support During Crisis

When disasters like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton strike, everyone in a community is impacted one way or another, and it take support from well beyond the affected communities recover and rebuild.

The U.S. Department of Education and state organizations like the Florida Association of School Administrators have action plans in place to assist schools during these difficult times. And on a local level, communities look to school leaders for guidance, compassion, and support—and a path to move forward.  

We talked to two school leaders whose schools and communities were impacted by these devastating storms and asked them to share how they supported their students and staff and navigated challenges in the immediate aftermath of the storms.

Addressing the Most Pressing Needs First

For Carlos Grant, principal of Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, South Carolina, whose school was closed for eight school days in late September and early October following Hurricane Helene, his priority was on the well-being of staff and students.

Starting with staff, Grant reorganized the school’s leadership team to ensure they could speak with each staff member individually and receive regular updates on their situations. For the students, they focused on reassuring parents that the school closure was designed to prioritize safety.

“We wanted families to feel supported, especially as some were without power or internet or faced dangerous road conditions, which made it impossible for eLearning,” said Grant.

Facing similar challenges from Hurricane Milton, just days after Helene’s devastation, Florida principal Farrell Thomas’s community endured loss of power, food shortages, housing issues, and fuel shortages—all leading to the school closing for seven days mid-October.

“We sent out staff and parent surveys to get information as to what damages occurred, what families needed, and how the school could assist,” said Thomas, who leads Waterset Charter School in Apollo Beach, Florida.

Support Beyond the Immediate Recovery

Support is always the strongest right after a crisis occurs. But the effects of the crises are long-lasting. Both Grant and Thomas prioritized continued support and check-ins beyond the immediate recovery period.  

“We implemented daily check-ins with staff and mobilized resources as needed,” said Grant. “For our students, we have a trauma response team that includes a full-time mental health counselor, school counselors, and administrators. We also partnered with NAMI South Carolina and the Hayden Hurst Family Foundation to organize ‘Go Lime Green Week,’ a week focused on mental health awareness. This partnership is helping to open dialogues on mental health and provide ongoing support for those who need it.”

At Thomas’ school, the student support services coordinator created a Monday check-in with students to check on their emotional wellness to start every week.

Fostering a Sense of Community

Education is inherently community-centric, and principals have become adept at building a strong sense of community—a foundation that is necessary when crises happen. For Grant and Thomas, it was no different.

“The silver lining in this tragedy has been witnessing how it brought out the best in people,” said Grant. “We saw an eagerness to help others, and my role was to coordinate these efforts. Building leaders organized ways for students to volunteer in the community, including food and water drives, yard cleanups, and delivering meals to those in need. I volunteered alongside them, maintaining high energy and modeling community service.”

Grant also used social media as an opportunity to highlight the work happening through his school, which created a ripple effect that allowed the broader community to see the positive impact they were having and inspired more people to join in the efforts.

In Thomas’ community, which was affected by both hurricanes, they focused on physically bringing together the community.

“We had food donated to the school to help us provide a spaghetti dinner for our staff and community,” said Thomas. “We wanted the community and staff to have another opportunity to just come together and fellowship with one another after enduring the effects of two hurricanes.” 

Innovative Solutions to Disrupted Learning

Since COVID-19 upended schools, the notion of disrupted learning certainly isn’t new. Schools learned strategies during that crisis that better equipped them to handle disrupted learning.

Like so many other schools affected by these recent storms, Grant’s school paused learning during the closure because staff and students didn’t have access to power.

“Typically, we would have used eLearning, as teachers are equipped to customize online learning for students,” said Grant. “However, given the circumstances, we extended the quarter once school resumed to account for the missed time.”

The school also implemented Relearn/Redo days, focusing on skill remediation rather than simply catching up on assignments. The goal was to ensure strong Tier 1 instruction to help prevent students from needing more intensive Tier 2 support.

In Thomas’ case, where there were such widespread power and internet outages, they also were unable to transition to eLearning.

“We did not extend the first quarter of school, as we missed days of the first quarter,” said Thomas. “We made the decision to end the first quarter, and any assignments that were due in quarter one were just moved over to start of quarter two.”

Partners in the Community

An important aspect of recovering and rebuilding after devastation is connecting with community partners who can amplify the school’s support and resources.

“We partnered with the United Way of Greenville to provide resources for families in need,” said Grant. “Our Employability Program and parent volunteers organized a food drive. Additionally, our School Board approved a temporary waiver to the employee leave policy to support staff significantly impacted by the hurricane. This waiver allows employees who suffered severe losses, such as the loss of their home or car, to request up to six additional personal leave days through June 30, 2025. This flexibility in leave options has been a vital support for our school family.”

Similarly, Thomas’ community focused on feeding their community.

“We are doing a food drive,” said Thomas. “And we’ve used some community partnerships to help give food to our neediest families. During our spaghetti dinner, we spread an application with families from a community organization that is in support of helping families for the upcoming holiday season.”

Resources to Help Schools Impacted By National Disasters

The U.S. Department of Education offers a variety of resources for school impacted by national disasters, most recently Helene and Milton. These resources include:

• Guidance, on-the-ground support, technical assistance, and peer-to-peer connections for state and local leaders;
• Resources for recovery needs such as mental health support for students and educators and to restore learning environments;
• Flexibilities to help institutions of higher education continue to manage the federal financial aid programs; and
• Automatically enrolling affected borrowers with missed payments into a natural disaster forbearance.

Find links resources and more information on the U.S. Department of Education website.

The Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA), the state affiliate of NAESP, has also committed to developing resources and systems of support to help Florida schools.

Learn more and donate on the FASA website.

Krysia Gabenski is editorial director at NAESP.