Growing up in northern Illinois, as kids we looked forward to having one or two "snow days" each school year. Being in a climate accustomed to snow and snow removal, it would take a bigger storm to cause that to happen. Every school usually would set aside two to four days at the beginning of the year as "Snow Days." If they were not used, you would get out of school early at the end of the school year. Even in high school we looked forward to those fun snow days.
Transition to 2017 and all the significant disasters that have happened this year, and you have school districts grappling with "Hurricane and Fire Days." See this article shared by Claire Rubin,
Natural Disasters And The Implications Of Missing So Much School.
In my reading, there are three prime things a community needs to recover from a disaster: housing, jobs, schools. All three have to be in place and functioning for people and business to get back on their feet.
Even when schools are back in operation, the impacts to learning will continue to echo throughout the year.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
