COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — As students fill the hallways at schools across Cocke County, their school counselors said they are making progress recovering from Hurricane Helene, even months after the devastating flooding on Sept. 27.
Andres Pratt is a school counselor at Del Rio and Grassy Fork Elementary School in Hartford. Both those areas saw significant damage from flooding.
"There is still a lot of debris," Pratt said. "The communities are not put back together, by any stretch. The buildings are not so great but the people are."
He said he knows at least three students had their homes completely destroyed. He said help from the community, especially churches, has made all the difference.
"I had two kids that lost their instruments in the flood and you don't really think about that," Pratt said. "But we had a church group that stepped up and bought brand new instruments for both students and they're back in lessons and they're doing great."
Bryan Douglas works at Three Rivers Learning Academy, an alternative school for high schoolers in the county. Like Pratt, his role as the supervisor for student support services means he's making sure students are okay emotionally and physically before they can learn.
"I think it was just more of an emotional adjustment to what some people witnessed and saw," Douglas said. "Our kids fared pretty well too. But I heard one of our kids who told us that a neighbor who lived just down the road wasn't so fortunate that their house was completely lost."
Pratt said he's seen students practice empathy for others, but they've also been resilient.
"I was talking to my wife, and she said Cocke County is gonna be all right," he said. "People know how to survive, they know how to take care of one another. That's been going on and it's still ongoing."
At Three Rivers Learning Center, Douglas said it's important that kids are in school to have face-to-face contact with teachers and peers every day. He said it gives them a sense of normalcy.
"We want to make school be your safe place," he said. "Your place where you go to get your batteries recharged. And I think here in Cocke County, we do a pretty good job of that."
