The storm after the storm: the long-term lingering impacts of hurricanes on schools

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools and discuss approaches to improving recovery efforts.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with 20 school districts in Texas and North Carolina after Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Matthew (2016). In total, 115 interviews were conducted with teachers, principals, district superintendents and representatives from state education agencies. Interview questions focused on the impact of storms and strategies for recovery.FindingsThe authors uncovered three long-term impacts of hurricanes on schools: (1) constrained instructional time, (2) increased social-emotional needs and (3) the need to support educators.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper focuses on two storms, in two states, in two successive years. Data collection occurred in Texas, one academic year after the storm. As compared to the North Carolina, data collection occurred almost two academic years after the storm.Practical implicationsThis paper illuminates strategies for stakeholders to implement and expedite hurricane recovery through; (1) updating curricula plans, (2) providing long-term counselors and (3) supporting educators in and out of school.Originality/valueTo date, very few studies have explored the ways in which schools face long-term impacts following a disaster. This paper provides insight to the challenges that prolong the impacts of disasters and impede recovery in schools. With hurricanes and related disasters continuing to affect schooling communities, more research is needed to identify the best ways to support schools, months to years after an event.

Climate change-induced extreme weather events alter the frequency of firearm incidents and child maltreatment cases in Wayne County, Michigan

“…Routine Activity Theory offers an alternative rationale for rearm violence reducing in the week following extreme weather events. Speci cally, extreme weather events might prevent people from interacting between households-through, for example, damaging infrastructure to deter travel or closing workplaces and schools 41,42 -thereby creating less opportunities for community violence. 23 The rationale that extreme weather events prevent violence through reducing interpersonal interactions could also explain why analyses did not nd associations between extreme weather events and rearm violence in the rst year of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…28,29,39,40 And nally, as suggested by Routine Activity Theory, extreme weather events may have ambivalent effects on safety, such as changing the locations where people spend their time. 41,42 Often, an extreme weather event's in uences on safety might cancel each other, thereby rendering no appreciable changes in violence observable at the population level. There also may be times and settings where the totality of in uences support safety, and other circumstances where the in uences overwhelmingly threaten safety.…”

Understanding Teacher Self-Efficacy to Address Students’ Social-Emotional Needs in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…These othermothers inherently focus on the whole child by meeting their academic, physical, and emotional needs. Black teachers have related their role of teaching to nurturing their mother's gardens by connecting their profession to a spiritual mission of supporting and uplifting children of color ( Dixson & Dingus, 2008 ).…”