News SPECIAL REPORT
Schools, Student Transporters Mend Lives Disrupted by Hurricanes
WRITTEN BY JULIE METEA
The destruction of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
S
chool districts and bus fleets are still adjusting from ramifications of the hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, which generated 17 named storms, more than 400 fatalities and record-breaking damage costs across the Carribean, Puerto Rico and the U.S. When the 2017-2018 academic year launched in late August and early
September, three devastating hurricanes made landfall: Harvey in Texas, Irma in the Caribbean and southeastern U.S., and Maria in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. With the dust still settling in the new year, communities across America continue to send aid to ravaged towns and welcome displaced families who had to leave their homeland. Just as schools and yellow buses served as temporary shelters and shuttles during the storms, they are still providing vital services in the lengthy recovery.
ISLAND SCHOOLS ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY Before Hurricane Maria, nearly 350,000 public K-12 students in Puerto
Rico were enrolled in approximately 1,130 public schools managed as a single unified district and assisted by the U.S. Department of Education. For weeks after the storm, students awaited their return to class until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) evaluated the damage and Puerto Rico’s Depart- ment of Education either repaired the schools or permanently closed them. “Some schools in the mountains were difficult to get to with landslides, heavy rains and other road closures, so sometimes there were multiple at-
22 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2018
tempts to get to a school,” said Brandon Works, USACE construction manager and Infrastructure Assessment mission manager. By early December, about 97 percent of the schools
reopened, but some of the facilities were still operating as shelters or helping people in the community. As first responders and federal authorities vacated the island, volunteers stepped in to help maintain the schools. Meantime, many Puerto Rican students and their families decided not to return.
WITH THE HELP OF TRANSPORTATION PROVIDERS Te stormy state of affairs sent a jolt through main- land education and transportation industries, as they worked together to accommodate newly enrolled stu- dents, particularly on the eastern and southern coasts. School bus contractor National Express responded to urgent calls from districts in its eastern operations, most notably Waterbury, Connecticut, where nearly 1,500 students from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Houston have resettled. Not only did the company work with its district partners to review routing in impacted
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