time and place of hurricane helen Get thousands of passionate high school athletes its way in the middle of the fall sports season.
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina And Tennessee – the state hardest hit by the storm – is among the states where high school sports are woven into the fabric of local culture.
High schools in dozens of communities across southern Appalachia are currently closed due to storm damage and many have no clarity about when their sports teams can resume their schedules.
In some schools, entire playgrounds have been destroyed.
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Following heavy rains from Hurricane Helene in Lake Lure, North Carolina on September 28, 2024, the Rocky Broad River overflows into Lake Lure and carries debris into the town of Chimney Rock, North Carolina. About six feet of debris has accumulated on the bridge from Lake Lure to Chimney Rock, blocking access. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
Heidi Morgan, athletic director at Pisgah High School in Canton, North Carolina, said the school’s football, baseball and softball fields were under several feet of water and “completely ruined.”
The Pisgah football team was in the midst of a 4-1 campaign before the storm and were coming off four consecutive dominant wins, in which the team outscored its opponents by a total of 110 points. The Pisgah Bears are coming off a season in which they suffered a heartbreaking playoff exit, losing their second round game by a touchdown.
Now, when the team is back on track and better than ever this year, storms have put a halt to their comeback story.
“I feel for my kids. They’ve been through a lot,” Morgan said. “In high school, you have to have a sense of normalcy. Our seniors, they’ve played at Pisgah Memorial Stadium eight times in four years because of COVID and then the flood in ’21. It’s just heartbreaking. “
At the same time, Morgan said there were casualties in other counties as well.
“You can’t replace a life,” he said. “Material things, you can replace.”
Sports facilities at nearby Asheville Christian Academy were also destroyed by flooding. Athletic director Joe Johnson said the first floors of one of its three buildings were flooded and the gym floor was destroyed. Athletic fields and tennis courts were also destroyed.
Asheville Christian’s football team was 2–1, with its homecoming game scheduled for October 25.
Hurricane Helene devastates Asheville, NC; National Guard deployed, 119 rescued
The remains of a home are seen in Lake Lure, North Carolina, on October 2, 2024, after the passage of Hurricane Helene. The death toll from powerful Hurricane Helene that struck the southeastern United States has risen to more than 155, officials said on Oct. 1, as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris surveyed the damage. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
Hampton High School in Tennessee suffered the destruction of its football stadium due to flooding from the Doe River. The Carter County School Board voted unanimously to spend $300,000 on cleanup of flood-damaged property. The school was in the path of the Doe River, which overflowed its banks during the onslaught of the remnants of Hurricane Helen last Friday.
Then, the school system’s insurer, Tennessee Risk Management, rejected the insurance claim for the damage, according to Johnson City PressNow, not just sports teams, but the entire school may be looking at a different hosting building for the rest of this year.
Hampton’s football team got off to a slow start, losing their first three games of the season. But just before the storm, the team got a ray of hope when it got its first win at home against Cumberland Gap, losing 60–14. This may have been the last game played in Hampton High School’s stadium.
In Lexington, South Carolina, the state hardest hit by power outages from the storm, American Leadership Academy running back and wide receiver Abraham Hoffman said the situation at home amid frequent power outages distracted from his football season Is.
“It takes a little bit of the focus away from the game and the season because you have to worry about a lot of things going on at home,” he said. “It definitely distracts.”
The school lost power for five days and the football team only recently returned to practice after having its game postponed this week. Still, he and his coach have witnessed surrounding towns and teams that have had much worse conditions.
“We just have to move through it,” Hoffman said. “You can’t sit back and let it affect you. Even though we went through it, it was tough, with hurricanes and other things, there are places where the situation was worse.”
American leadership coach Robin Bacon spoke to two head coaches from other regions, who said, “‘It feels like there’s been a nuclear bomb attack on some of these regions.’ This is very bad.
“We take for granted eating hot food,” he said. “We take for granted that there’s electricity. We take for granted that we can take a shower. And I’m talking to some of our football players, and They say, ‘Coach, we don’t have air conditioning.'”
At least 232 people have lost their lives in seven states North Carolina Bearing the brunt of devastation. As more areas are being discovered for the first time, this number is expected to increase. Efforts to locate missing persons are being hampered by the lack of phone service and electricity in the area.
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A rescue team lands in the Swannanoa River on Sunday, September 29, 2024. The remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread flooding, downed trees and power outages in western North Carolina. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Search teams are carefully combing the mountains in the hope of finding survivors among the missing. Their efforts have been hampered by broken roads, fallen power lines and landslides. Helen has now become the second deadliest hurricane to strike We mainland over the past 55 years.
President Joe Biden has pledged to provide significant resources to aid recovery efforts, while acknowledging the huge costs, which are estimated to be in the billions of dollars. To speed up the delivery of essential supplies to those in need, Biden is directing the Defense Department to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also warned that FEMA “He doesn’t have the money” to weather the hurricane.
“We’re meeting immediate needs with the money we have. We’re expecting another hurricane. We don’t have the funds. FEMA doesn’t have the funds to get through the season,” Mayorkas said Wednesday. Is.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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