School & District Management

Schools Shut Down As Floyd Hits East Coast

By Alan Richard — September 22, 1999 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Hurricane Floyd evicted about 2 million students from their schools last week, bringing driving winds, heavy rains, and flash floods to much of the East Coast.

But by week’s end, the storm’s diminishing force left school leaders in some areas debating whether they had made the right call to close doors so early.

Schools closed from South Florida to New York as the sprawling hurricane swept north. As children in the Carolinas and Florida fled with their families, many schools were pressed into service as emergency shelters.

Floyd didn’t bring the destruction of past storms such as 1992’s Andrew or Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Instead, it turned north and weakened slightly, keeping its most deadly winds away from the coastline.

In most areas, reports of damage were slight as the storm moved up the coast. But many educators said the dire forecasts as the storm approached had left them little choice but to shut down.

“To be fair, this was a huge storm,” said Paul D. Houston, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va. “I think everybody was just erring on the side of caution.”

The District of Columbia schools and districts in Washington’s Maryland and Virginia suburbs were among those that closed last Thursday.

Meanwhile, schools began reopening in Florida by Thursday, and children returned to school on Friday in parts of Georgia and South Carolina away from the coast.

Along some coastal areas, schools remained closed into Friday. Power outages were common from the Carolinas to New England, and many schools in the Southeast remained open as shelters while governors pondered whether to allow everyone’s return.

Tough Call

“It’s the worst decision you have to make,” said Mr. Houston, a former district superintendent in California, Arizona, and New Jersey. “Half the people really get angry if you close, particularly those with child-care problems. The other half get upset if you leave school open, and they say you’re endangering their children.”

Almost every South Carolina school within 100 miles of the beaches was closed, as educators recalled the destruction left by Hurricane Hugo 10 years ago. That storm devastated Charleston and other coastal areas and caused substantial damage inland in Charlotte and Columbia.

But Floyd passed with only the symptoms of severe thunderstorms, and many schools reopened Friday.

Though some administrators may have overreacted, Jim Foster, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Education, said no apologies were in order.

“These are precautions you have to take. It could have been a real mess,” Mr. Foster said. “You don’t take chances with people’s lives.”

Reaction Time

Farther north, administrators made the call to close some schools in New Jersey two days before the storm would reach them in weakened form.

“That, I definitely think, was premature,” said Bill Adams, the superintendent of the Salem County, N.J., vocational and technical schools. His schools serve about 1,000 students from several districts about 50 miles inland.

Emergency-preparedness workers had warned schools of possible 60 mph winds on Friday, Mr. Adams said.

They also feared the storm might shoot directly up the Delaware River, causing flooding or damage far inland that could force schools to be used as shelters.

He added, though, that a wait-and-see plan is no good if conditions worsen during the school day; parents won’t stand for children being sent home when adults may not be available to care for them.

“There’s just no way with elementary-age and disabled children,” Mr. Adams said. “With child care today, especially, the earlier warning or notice they get, it gives them time to react.”

Related Tags:

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Opinion A Good Principal Knows When It's Time to Leave
I didn’t leave my job because of burnout; I stepped away from being a school leader because it was in everybody’s best interest.
Matthew Ebert
4 min read
Conceptual illustration of someone handing off a baton to someone else over a completed puzzle.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management Principals Tell Politicians on Capitol Hill: We’re Burning Out
Students' mental health top principals' growing list of concerns.
6 min read
People walk outside the U.S Capitol building in Washington, June 9, 2022.
Visitors walk outside the U.S Capitol building in Washington on June 9, 2022.
Patrick Semansky/AP
School & District Management Women Superintendents Experience Bias on the Climb to Leadership
Interpersonal slights and inequities make it hard for women to land the job and stay in it.
3 min read
Woman stands in front of a staircase in different colors. She is about to walk up the stairs. Concept of standing in front of a challenge and finding the right solution and courage to move on.
mikkelwilliam/E+
School & District Management Fewer of Today's Superintendents Are at Retirement Age
A new survey of superintendents adds to what we know about the people who lead the nation's school districts.
4 min read
Conceptual illustration of money, salaries and data.
iStock/Getty