Stay updated on our recovery from hurricane helene
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With over 40 years of service to the families of Boone we know we can build back this school better to keep serving this generation of children. Please share this page or our home page links with your friends, neighbors, and MPS alumni to help us get the word out about the needs of our school.
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Recounting Hurricane Helene & Recovery froM MPS
oct 12th, 2024
A message from our board chair on the school’s clean up process two weeks post-helene.
Oct 11th, 2024
A message from our Co-Directors about the extensive flooding and damage to Mountain Pathways School from Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27th, 2024.
Packing up the children’s belongings before the restoration crew begins their work.
October 4th-October 5th
The Clean-Up and SuperSaturday:
We were fortunate enough to get ahold of a restoration crew that could put us on their schedule immediately. In order for them to begin, we had the heavy work (emotionally and physically) of removing all of the items in our building and moving to them to storage containers. It was an emotionally taxing time for everyone involved. We had past and current families, past and current teachers, and volunteers arrive to help. The monumental task of removing everything from a building was daunting and devastating, but the help of our community members made it possible. On Saturday, October 5th we had our “SuperSaturday” event of grading our ….
Our Norwood building suffered flooding up to the second floor.
October 1st - October 3rd
Assessing the Damages:
The first week of October brought with it the heartbreaking realization of how much we had lost. Our Norwood building, which in the past housed our elementary and middle students, was inaccessible due to the foundational damage from the storm. Our greenhouse collapsed in on itself. Our propane tank floated all the way down to the end of the creek. Our Children’s House, which currently holds our 18mo-6 year olds, was going to need a lot of work to restore it to it’s former glory. We spent the first day cleaning out all of the mud from the classroom floors, hooking up donated generators because we had lost power, and starting the process of making claims. We spent the second day tearing out all of the carpets that were holding moisture, getting a porta-potty on site for our volunteers, and obtaining a dumpster so that we could have a space to throw away the materials and furniture that had been damaged.
This is our toddler playground. The playground collected feet of flood contaminated mud. Our fencing has been destroyed, our playground equipment is missing, and our shed was pushed back from the power of the water.
September 26th - September 30th
The Start of the Storm:
We closed school early on Thursday night and all day on Friday in anticipation for the oncoming storm. Late Thursday night was when the flooding starting in the Norwood basement. Tori and Jenny, along with their partners, spent hours trying to wet-vac out the water and prepare the basement door against flooding. Thursday evening and Friday morning brought relentless rain and wind. The majority of Boone, NC and surrounding areas lost power, water, and cell reception which left everyone in the dark and unknown. After finally getting a small amount of cell reception late Friday night, we learned that both of our school buildings suffered significant flooding and damage from a parent in our community. We were unable to get to the school until Saturday, and that was when we saw firsthand how our once beautiful and peaceful creek had risen up and fundamentally changed Howard’s Creek Road, the homes of so many around us, and our beloved school.
