PORTSMOUTH — Hurricane Helene swept through Scioto County last Friday (Sept. 27), and left damage in her wake.
Trees fell all over the county, in parks, across power lines, and onto houses and vehicles.
Roads suffered from the wear.
Pockets of neighborhood were flooded.
Wind ripped through properties.
While the wind was commonplace all day, the flooding and worst of the storm hit just as students left campuses for the weekend.
This caused delays in some cases, flooding on some properties and fields, and, while nothing serious was reported, South Central Ohio Educational Service Center’s Sandy Mers said that the local school districts worked together to help students from all schools — whether they were neighboring districts or rivals on the field.
“The day of the storm wasn’t a huge impact, because it didn’t hit until late afternoon, which was dismissal time for some students. Now some games were postponed or canceled, but there wasn’t much of an impact on the day of,” Mers said.
It was reported that the storm activity was highly active over South Webster schools at dismissal, but principals kept students onsite and sheltered in place to get through it together, before releasing students to go home.
While the storm hit, educators were calming students and keeping their minds off the storm.
Mers said that this practice is common in active weather situations.
“This is not out of the ordinary,” Mers claimed. “While this sounds wonderful to everyone, and it is, that is the status quo. Our schools all do this in storms and look after students.”
According to Mers, there was limited impact on campuses as well, with flooding being the biggest concern.
Of that flooding, most of it took place in fields utilized for sports.
“The one thing about this group is that all of the member districts in the county, even though some are rivals on the field, when it comes to any kind of disaster or emergency, everyone bands together,” Mers said. “We have a superintendent group text and we communicate constantly. That is one blessing from COVID; we are in communication on a daily basis. Some schools had athletic fields that were flooded, and other schools were allowing those schools to utilize their resources. For a fact, New Boston did not have a field to practice soccer. Every other district with a soccer field offered their field up. You don’t see that in many places, but this group is so collaborative and help each other out constantly. We have good districts.”
Many of the local schools canceled classes the following Monday — due to road closures, some students being without electricity, and other causes.
“We had some areas still flooded and trees down in some roads, but everything was cleaned up and we were on regular schedule come Tuesday,” Mers said.
Even though classes were cancelled, Mers claimed many of the schools had food pantries open, and even offered backpacks with supplies to students in need.
“A lot of our schools offered food and resources and advertised this on Facebook,” Mers explained. “Many of the schools have active Facebook pages that parents should follow because of times like these— there are ways the administrations can help or communicate news.”
A week after the storm, schools are back in session, fields are drying out, and educators are getting through the damage together, whether their orange and black means they’re a Senator or a Pirate.
Whether their red and blue means they’re a Trojan or a Mohawk.
Whether their blue and gold is for Clay or Notre Dame.
“I just want to stress how collaborate these districts are, it’s remarkable,” Mers said. “Not every group in the state is like this group, they are second to none.”
