On the morning of September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in western North Carolina. Alongside 100 mile per hour winds, Helene brought with it historic levels of rainfall, dumping anywhere between 10 and 30 inches of rain across the region. The resulting flood was catastrophic.
Nearly 400,000 power customers in North Carolina were without electricity — some areas going without power for upwards of two weeks. 5,000 miles of state-maintained roads were also damaged in Helene, making travelling by car unpredictable and dangerous in many areas. There are still roads in western North Carolina that are damaged or impassable as a result of Hurricane Helene.
With all of these compounding factors, many public schools in western North Carolina were closed for several weeks following the hurricane, with some closures lasting upwards of a month.
Learning disruptions of that magnitude coupled with the trauma and stress of surviving a hurricane have had a lasting impact on rural students. The Office of Rural Promise has launched a new program to try and mitigate some of that impact: Echoes from the Mountains.
The project rests on the simple idea that the people who lived through Helene should have the chance to tell the stories of what came after. Students are not required to relive traumatic experiences, but instead are given multiple entry points to explore topics like challenge, change, community, relationships, belonging, hope, and resilience.
Teachers first try out the writing activities themselves during professional learning sessions before bringing adapted writing experiences to their students.
Through this effort, the Office of Rural Promise is creating space for regional educators and students to find words for hope and community while telling their own stories.
The project currently serves 40 middle-school English language arts teachers across eight western North Carolina counties: Ashe, Buncombe, Burke, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Transylvania, and Watauga.
To help measure the project’s impact, 20 teachers participate in training and implement the writing activities in their classrooms, while the other 20 teachers serve as a comparison group for the research. Students in these classrooms participate directly through classroom writing sessions and research activities.
The project team has already completed the initial research plan, launched teacher training, and created a guide with classroom resources. Right now, classroom writing sessions, teacher reflection cycles, and data collection are actively underway.
Looking ahead, the project plans to host a student and teacher writing competition, publish a collection of writing, hold a celebration event, and produce a short documentary.
Ultimately, Echoes from the Mountains uses writing and storytelling to help western North Carolina teachers and students make sense of change, strengthen belonging, and build resilience together.