美国国家公共电台 NPR When Florence Hit Her School Community, This Principal Stepped Up

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In North Carolina, more than 60,000 students are starting another week without school. Their districts are still taking stock of the damage caused by Hurricane Florence, and many of the students and teachers who evacuated 1 are still far from home. WUNC's Lisa Philip has the story of one Wilmington community scattered 2 by the storm.

KRISTA HOLLAND: Yeah. I'm walking like I know where I'm going. I really don't.

LISA PHILIP, BYLINE 3: Krista Holland is the principal of Anderson Elementary School in Wilmington, where the storm made landfall. But today she's about 170 miles away in Chapel 4 Hill. She's searching a storm shelter for any of her students who may be staying there. Then she recognizes a young man wearing ear buds 5.

HOLLAND: Oh, yes you - you remember me, Ms. Holland?

DELICHIA PRINGLE: Yes, I do remember you.

HOLLAND: From Gregory - oh, my gosh.

PHILIP: Turns out he's a former student. He doesn't remember, but his mom, Delichia Pringle, does.

PRINGLE: The principal, Ty (ph). He done got older. That's why.

HOLLAND: Yeah. What grade is he in now?

PRINGLE: Seventh.

HOLLAND: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh.

PRINGLE: He's about to be 14.

PHILIP: Holland is concerned about the uncertainty 6 students like Ty are facing. She worries about that more than the physical damage to Anderson Elementary.

HOLLAND: The lack of a sense of normalcy for the kids. And I think that's where my heart aches the most.

PHILIP: As for herself, she evacuated and is staying with family in Raleigh. Folks who stayed behind have told her her home is mostly unscathed and her school has some water damage.

HOLLAND: Nothing that can't be cleaned up and repaired, and it probably will not take long.

PHILIP: Like their principal, many Anderson Elementary students and staff are facing a lot of unknowns. They've been away from home and school for more than a week, and their classes have been canceled at least through this week, too.

HOLLAND: Then the unknown of not knowing when you're going to get home and what may be waiting for you or not waiting for you.

PHILIP: Some parents were able to turn their evacuations into fun getaways. Others like Meghan Digby stayed in Wilmington and sent their kids out of town. Digby has been separated from her 6-year-old daughter for over a week now.

MEGHAN DIGBY: We obviously had no idea that we would be cut off from each other for so long. I'm trying to stay calm and wait for more roads to clear up so that she can come back. But there's a lot of rumors 7 circling about how long it might take.

PHILIP: Digby took comfort in a phone recording 8 that Principal Holland sent parents a few days ago. In it, she sent love to students and their families.

DIGBY: And I was actually working on a puzzle just trying to keep my mind busy. And when it came through, I put it on speakerphone. And it made me cry just hearing how much she cared.

PHILIP: At the Chapel Hill shelter, Holland is carrying bags of toys she bought for the kids there. She sets them down next to a stack of diapers.

HOLLAND: I brought bubbles, a couple of hula hoops 9. I could only find one jump-rope. I have footballs so if they get outside.

PHILIP: Holland says giving back is front and center at Anderson. A couple years ago, students and staff collected supplies for a North Carolina town that was flooded after Hurricane Matthew. Last year, it was a Hats for Houston fundraiser after Hurricane Harvey.

HOLLAND: And now we are going to be on the receiving end of help and support. And I think for our kids there will be valuable lessons to see that sometimes, you know, you give and you help other people.

PHILIP: And that sometimes, she says, it's OK to know that you're going to get help back. For NPR News, I'm Lisa Philip in Durham, N.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOFT EYEZ'S "CLASSROOM NAPS")