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On Monday, Oct. 7, the educators of Pinnacle Elementary School in Rutherford County had their first official meeting since Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina. But unofficially, these educators and their principal, Ashley Twitty, had been seeing a lot of each other since the storm.
“I’m serious, I have never been so proud,” Twitty said to her staff. With a genuine mix of gratefulness and gusto she continued, “Thank you so very much for everything that you have done, and that we are going to do.”
She is referring to the relief and recovery efforts her staff provided for their community. They created a true hub for help in the wake of the region’s most astonishing storm. Twitty and her staff are now readying themselves for students to return to school on Oct. 9.
Helene made landfall in Rutherford County about two weeks ago, on Thursday, Sept. 27. Twitty had to move a 100-foot oak tree that had fallen in her driveway before she could even get to her school and assess the damage.
There was no power at school the following Friday or Saturday, but also no major structural issues. Her first order of business was to locate all of her staff and make sure they were safe. She would have to drive to the opposite side of the county for cell service. Once she knew all were okay, she enlisted them to do the same and find all 257 of their students.
For communication, Twitty had a three-pronged approach. She posted updates on ClassDojo, the school’s Facebook page, and sent out all-calls. Fully aware that communication was limited and power was unavailable, word of mouth and phone calls were constantly being used, as her school serves the largest land mass in the county for elementary students. She made some house calls, too.
On Monday, she and six teachers put a message on the sign leading to the school saying, “water, bring jugs.” School staff assembled with a folding table, peanut butter crackers, some cans of Chef Boyardee, and a water hose. Community members in need quickly started to arrive, as did helpers from the outside.
Everyday brought more supplies, more people, and a different message on the sign. Tuesday was “water and supplies, bring jugs.” Staff members and parents were at school helping with distribution, and local business owners who could make hot meals came by to feed the volunteers.
“Everybody came together to meet the needs of everybody. And my staff, I cannot be more proud of my staff. A lot of them came and worked, and they didn’t have a warm house to go home to, or lights (on at home),” Twitty said.
When the principal ran out of supplies, she looked to R-S Central High School down the road, which was simultaneously a distribution center and an evacuation shelter. Principal Phil Rogers told Twitty to come down and take anything she needed.
That Tuesday, the lobby of the school was converted into a mass general store.
Twitty never stopped working to fulfill community needs. After four days of no power, people asked about ice. Many of the families Pinnacle Elementary serves have hunters, and they didn’t want to lose their frozen meat. She got on the phone and didn’t stop calling until she had brokered a delivery of 3,000 bags of ice from Zippy Ice in Charlotte.
Her focus, and the focus of the Rutherford County School district, is shifting from rescue and recovery to students returning, which will happen two weeks after Helene hit western North Carolina.
All items that were in the school’s lobby have now been relocated to the resource room, still at the front of school for any students or families in need. Twitty believes around 40 of her families are still without power as of Oct. 7, which means without showers and laundry. That is she and her staff’s next item to conquer. At the meeting, they had a conversation about available community showers, washers, and driers.
The staff also discussed how they were going to welcome students back after such an event — with a short and sweet spirit week. Wednesday will be a “come as you are” dress down day. Twitty wants kids to be able to wear pajamas if they are comfortable, or anything they have that is clean.
Then it will be “Thankful Thursday.” Teachers and students will talk about community, and how everyone was taking care of each other.
“I think that is something that we really need to talk about in our school, is how we all came together to help each other,” said Twitty.
And the week will finish out with “Fun Friday,” a day filled with board games and other activities that the students are already familiar with. Usually it’s a privilege students have to earn, but this time, everyone will get to participate.
Social and emotional distress is top of mind for Twitty and her school counselor. So is the economic impact of the storm. She is the closest traditional public school to the heavily impacted areas of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. Parents of many Rutherford County students work in the tourism industry. As the community continues to recover, Twitty wants families to know that the school will continue to be a resource.
At the closing of the first official meeting, there was a communal prayer. Two staff members told us there was no one like Principal Twitty. They said she leads by example, and when you have leadership that’s in the trenches with you, you want to work twice as hard.
A high school evacuation center
R-S Central High School dismissed students on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 1 p.m., and the next day at the exact same time, Principal Phil Rogers was contacted about making his school, the largest in the county, a shelter. Two hours later, it was an official designation.
From that moment until Oct. 6, the school went through iterations of refuge — distribution center, communication center, and volunteer center — all while housing those displaced by Helene. The school sheltered 150 people in the aftermath of the storm, not including those who came for meals or other resources.
The school was without power for five days, but had a generator that powered emergency lights. The Department of Social Services manned the shelter until Oct. 1, when the American Red Cross arrived.
“I didn’t tell the people they had to lose their pets too. I let them bring them in,” said Rogers. So cages for dogs and cats were set up along side cots.
“We had a tremendous outpouring of people who came in to volunteer,” Rogers said. Other towns sent trailer loads of supplies. Local small business supported, churches and community organizations came, and volunteers from out of state made their way to R-S Central to help.
Doctors and nurses came in voluntarily to talk with those staying in the shelter about their medication. “A lot of really good stuff went on at a very bad time,” reflected Roger, who has been working at the school since 1996 and became principal in 2008.
Once the Red Cross arrived, they transitioned to shelter only and moved supplies to other schools like Pinnacle Elementary.
“After watching what all has transpired in western North Carolina, I think the public schools have shown during all this that they are still the community centers, they are still where people go.”
Phil Rogers, principal of R-S Central High School
Rogers looks forward to having students return to school this week, but knows there is a long road ahead. The damage in Rutherford was not as severely widespread as many neighboring counties, but the principal knows he has students whose homes were destroyed.
At the beginning of the storm, R-S Central’s sign out front reflected a hopeful message. Rogers said it will remain.
