ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Grocery stores have reopened, gas lines have gone down and Buncombe County residents are slowly returning to somewhat normal day-to-day routines.
One exception to that is students.
During a briefing earlier this week, education officials said the devastation unleashed by Helene has caused several problems for area schools, not the least of which are lack of power and water and roads too damaged for buses.
As of Wednesday, 40 of 45 schools in the Buncombe County system had power and only 13 of the 45 had water.
Buncombe County Schools Superintendent Dr. Rob Jackson said he has discussed the district’s challenges with State Department of Public Instruction and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services officials.
“We’ve looked into sharing buildings that do have power and water, looked into partial day schedules and busing students across the county. We’ve looked at using flush brigades with armies of community volunteers who would help carry non-potable water throughout the day and stay in our schools that use that water to supply and flush our commodes,” Jackson said. ‘Our school system has truly tried to come up with any workaround to safely bring our students back.”
Their answer — portable restroom trailers with built-in hand washing stations.
The district would need 939 portable toilets and 391 hand-washing stations, Jackson said.
“This comes with a large financial burden. However, we know that the 14,680 students served by the schools that currently do not have water are worth our every effort,” Jackson said.
District officials have put in a request to get the portable restroom facilities on our campuses as soon as possible, and they’ve asked local, state and federal emergency management authorities to help.
Asheville City Schools has also submitted an order for portable toilet trailers. But education officials in that system are taking a different approach, too.
“While the city continues to make progress to the municipal water system, we can’t wait until it is fully repaired to open our schools,” Superintendent Dr. Maggie Fehrman said. “One of those efforts that we’ve made in Ashville City Schools is to start drilling wells on our campuses.”
Fehrman said a crew drilling at Hall Fletcher Elementary School hit groundwater.
“While this is great news, it will still take time for us to be able to use that water,” she said. “Well water at schools is considered a public water use, and it takes extra steps before we can start using that water in our buildings.”
Officials estimate it will be two to three weeks before the well water will be usable.
“We do plan on continuing drilling wells at each campus so that regardless of what happens with our water system, we will always have a backup for our Asheville City Schools,” the superintendent said.
The average cost of the wells will be about $100,000, she said.
“Some schools will be able to manage things on one well, and some schools may need two wells per campus. We’re looking at probably eight to 10 wells,” she said.
The district plans to use Capital funds but is also applying to FEMA to get reimbursed for the cost.
The targeted school opening date for ACS is Oct. 28. However, the goal is to open as soon as safely possible so this date may change. ACS will provide a 72-hour notice to parents before reopening.
Haywood County Schools officials said staff will return to class on Monday, Oct. 14, and students will return Tuesday, Oct. 15, on a two-hour delay and be on the regular schedule for the remainder of the week.