Buncombe County Schools confirm 4 student deaths from Helene, still trying to contact 21 others

Four students in Buncombe County have died from the devastation brought on by Hurricane Helene.

Buncombe County Schools (BCS) Superintendent Rob Jackson shared the news at an emergency Board of Education meeting on Friday.

"I’m extremely brokenhearted to share since the storm's arrival, we’ve also lost four of our students," Jackson said. "The loss of anyone diminishes us. Our school system is diminished by this loss. We have significant numbers of our staff members who have lost family and friends. Significant numbers of community members and neighbors who have also lost loved ones. In that loss, and in the tragedy, what we have seen is a response, where I believe that we can take pride in and be heartened by, as we’ve seen neighbor reach out to neighbor, as we’ve seen the hands come forward to say what can I do for you? And we’ve certainly seen that not only in our community but among our Buncombe County Schools family."

The students who died were not identified.

Jackson said there are 21 students that the district is still trying to make direct contact with. Jackson said some of those students have left the state.

"We've had students who've left the area," Jackson said. "We understand we've actually had students who've left the country and so with the communication difficulties caused by the cell phone outage that was quite complex to get in touch with our students."

There has been direct contact made with 100% of staff members.

Power is available at all 45 BCS campuses but only 13 have access to water. Internet connectivity is available at 39 of the schools. As of Saturday afternoon, there were still more than 21,000 without power in Buncombe County.

"In my 33-plus years if a school didn't have water, we sent students home," Jackson said. "We closed school. We couldn't imagine operating schools without water. Water is crucial to the operation of a building."

The district has requested restroom trailers through the Emergency Operations Center.

"It is what I'm losing sleep over right now in terms of trying to figure out how to do the impossible," Jackson said. "I believe we will do it."

On Saturday, BCS said they will be resuming academic, arts, and athletic high school extracurricular activities on Monday.

"Schools will be working together to share facilities and resources as needed to support each other," a post said on the system's Facebook page.

Buncombe schools are closed indefinitely. The storm hit on Sept. 27 with Friday marking two weeks since Helene tore through western North Carolina. At least 72 people have died in Buncombe County from Helene.

The Asheville City Schools system is considering drilling wells at each school to alleviate the water outages.

Buncombe County officials confirmed that emergency repairs have reconnected the North Fork Reservoir, one of three key water sources in the Asheville area, to the county’s water system. That's allowed some nearby communities - including parts of Black Mountain and Swannanoa - to receive water again. Most of the area is still under a boil water advisory.