When schools reopened on Oct. 16, transportation em-
ployees faced a new set of challenges. Inoperable traffic lights and debris-strewn roads caused delays, but the district successfully maintained pre-existing bus routes, noted Kelsey Whealy, a spokesperson for Sarasota County Schools. Jamie Warrington, director of transportation for Man-
atee County Schools, highlighted similar issues. With 14,000 students relying on school buses, blocked roads and power outages initially paralyzed the system. “Hurricane Milton dumped an exorbitant amount of
water, which caused a lot of trees to fall. We had blocked roadways that prevented us from opening school because not only just buses but parents couldn’t get their kids there,” he said. “There was no safe walking path into the schools. Many schools didn’t have electricity. After a couple of days, they started cutting the trees up. Then our struggle was we’ve got debris piled on the side of the roads.” In many cases, there was so much debris, it was cov- ering sidewalks, creating a difficulty for student to safely walk to the bus stops. “Parents wound up driving their students, which
made car lines even longer than they were before, when school did eventually open,” Warrington added. Anna Maria Elementary faced unique challenges.
island located at the sout entrance of Tampa Bay inac- cessible. The school temporarily relocated operations to another campus with buses running modified routes to accommodate displaced families. The school district was closed for three days after Hur-
ricane Helene and five days after Hurricane Milton. The Manatee district’s four electric school buses were
unaffected by the power outages. “Power in our facility was back on day two,” War-
rington says. “Part of our hurricane preparation is that because of the cost of our electric buses, they and newer buses get placed into our shop. Other buses are secured around the building, which is standard protocol in most school districts in protecting the assets during a storm. We didn’t have any flooding in our facility.” Each year, the district assembles a list of employ-
ees willing to help if called upon. The district provided assistance in clearing a few shelters to return occupants home as well as transferring some evacuees from a shel- ter to another non-school shelter in order to get schools back open again. While one driver was unable to report to work for the
Curfews and damaged infrastructure made Anna MariaSTN_print ad_Jan2025_OL_production.pdf 1 12/13/24 2:17 PM
first two days school had resumed, all of the other bus drivers were able to return to work despite many of them having minor to moderate property damage.
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