Records lost, hundreds of displaced students: Kentucky floods have thrown schools into crisis mode
While students nationwide kick off a new school year, many school districts in east Kentucky are working to get kids into classrooms after devastating floods.
BUCKHORN, Ky. — Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass and state Education Department officials spent this week assessing the damage schools sustained after devastating floodwaters swept through eastern Kentucky last month. At least 1,100 students remain displaced from their homes in one school district alone.
While most students across the country are kicking off the new school year, many in eastern Kentucky school districts are still figuring out where they will attend classes or when they’ll be able to start. More than 7,600 Kentucky students are still affected, and their start dates have been pushed into September, according to the state Education Department.
“It was sobering to see the damage, just driving along the road and seeing refrigerators and couches where the floodwater receded,” said Toni Konz Tatman, the chief communications officer for the Education Department, who accompanied Glass. “All of the schools we visited took between 4 and 6 feet of water, so you could actually see the water line on the wall and all those floors that need to be ripped up. There’s a lot of work ahead.”
One place with a lot of work ahead is Buckhorn School, which teaches nearly 350 K-12 students in this small town and took almost 8 feet of water.
Most of the school’s desks and chairs are piled out in the parking lot now as workers in white hazmat suits walk in and out dragging out debris and drywall. The bent metal siding of a double-wide trailer covers the outdoor lunch area, truck tires were found inside classrooms, and a telephone pole came to rest in the school’s hallway.
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