Hurricane Irene wreaked havoc from North Carolina to Maine last weekend, causing massive power outages, flooding and 42 deaths. While the damage here in Bethesda was relatively minor, students and teachers still felt the effects of Irene.
Many of the area’s trees tumbled under the force of Irene’s 55 mph winds, and some crashed through windows and cars. Senior Hannah Stahl, Black & White opinion editor, woke up to find her car’s windshield completely smashed in by a large branch.
“The morning after Hurricane Irene, I was happy to find that I still had power,” Stahl said. “But when I stepped outside, I saw leaves and branches everywhere — in my yard, on the street and right in my car’s windshield. The branch fell from a very high tree about 100 feet up, sending it straight through my windshield with full force. The windshield will cost about $100 to replace, but in hindsight, it’s lucky that it was the car, not a person, that got hurt.”
Stahl couldn’t take her car on the first day of school. Whitman was fortunate enough to have power Aug. 29, but seven other schools across the county were closed because of power outages, including Bradley Hills Elementary.
Science teacher Melanie Toth ended up bringing her second-grader to school with her Monday, after finding out last minute that Bradley Hills was closed.
“I was waiting in front of Bradley Hills for about twenty minutes, and it looked like they had power; it must have been that the emergency power generators were on,” Toth said. “There were cars in the parking lot, and finally a parent came by and said, ‘You know, the school’s closed.’ I said, ‘I had no idea; nobody let me know.’ I didn’t get a call at my house, and I got a call on my cell phone at about 7:20 in the morning.”
MCPS released a list of 22 schools without power Sunday evening, but Bradley Hills didn’t lose power until later that night. Toth usually drops off her son at 7:00, so the call came too late. Instead, her son experienced the first day of high school — seven years early.
“I think it made him more anxious [about his first day of school], as any student would be,” Toth said. “And he was a little bit bored. By the end of the day, he knew what the routine was and actually helped the students conduct their laboratory. He knew what all the answers were.”
Toth also had to arrange last-minute childcare for her two-year-old son.
“I had my aunt and uncle flying from St. Louis here to watch my two-year-old for the week, and all the airlines were shut down for the entire weekend, so they weren’t able to come out until Monday,” Toth said. “That was a problem because I had to arrange daycare for him.”
Many students’ travel plans were also affected by the hurricane, which caused massive flight delays and cancellations, as well as driving difficulties.
Junior Hanna Bouten was vacationing with her family in Canada and planned to drive home over the weekend, but harsh weather from the storm delayed her trip, causing her to miss the first day of school.
“There was a lot of flooding on the streets, so it took 13 and a half hours to get home, instead of 10,” Bouten said. “Missing the first day of school was hard, because you miss the handouts and the teachers talking about the year.”
