Recent years have seen a surge in extreme weather events, exposing vulnerabilities in community resilience. In August 2023, Hurricane Dora sparked devastating wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, destroying over 2,200 homes and claiming over 100 lives. Just a year later, Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic flooding in Yancey County, North Carolina, leaving 1,400 homes lost and taking 10 lives. And in Kerr County, Texas, a flash flood on July 4, 2025, swept away 135 lives with little warning. These tragedies highlight a growing trend : disasters are becoming more common, more intense, and more disruptive. The immediate aftermath is often marked by chaos – power outages, communication failures, and desperate searches for loved ones.
The core problem is not just the disasters themselves, but the fact that communities struggle to respond effectively in the critical first 72 hours. This is when help matters most : access to shelter, food, water, medical attention, and information. Families need a reliable place to turn in a crisis, and existing systems are often overwhelmed.
The Untapped Potential of Schools
A practical solution lies in leveraging a resource already at the heart of every community: our schools. Schools are trusted, accessible, and familiar to every household. With strategic planning and collaboration, they can serve as vital emergency response hubs.
Schools are uniquely positioned to provide immediate support : parking lots can become staging areas for first responders, gyms can function as shelters, classrooms can serve as distribution centers for essential supplies, and cafeterias can provide mass feeding operations. School records and existing relationships with families make them ideal locations for family reunification efforts. Crucially, district-level networks offer redundancy: if one school is damaged, others can step in.
How to Make It Work
Federal agencies, like FEMA, already provide guidance for school emergency preparedness. Their Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans offers a roadmap for integrating with local first responders and training staff. The key is to build upon this foundation :
- Backup Power & Communications: Partner with utilities and telecom providers to equip schools with generators and reliable communication systems.
- Emergency Supplies: Secure donations and partnerships with businesses to stock schools with blankets, water, non-perishable food, and first-aid supplies.
- Community Education: Utilize school events, newsletters, and student outreach to educate families about local emergency plans.
Real-World Examples
The effectiveness of this approach is already being demonstrated. After Hurricane Helene hit Yancey County, North Carolina, Mountain Heritage High School transformed into a lifeline, coordinating recovery efforts and sheltering displaced families. As one bus driver noted, “We are used to helping people.”
Similarly, schools in Maui served as evacuation centers during the Lahaina wildfires, coordinating supplies and counseling with the Red Cross. Maui Preparatory Academy housed over 700 people, providing food, clothing, and medical care. The school’s headmaster observed, “Who better to do these tasks than educators? We organize things.”
In Kerr County, Texas, Hunt School acted as a resilience center, providing shelter, food, and showers to 150 community members while coordinating NGO responses and fueling first responders.
The Path Forward: A National Safe Haven Program
To scale this model nationally, a voluntary program should be launched to equip schools as “Safe Havens.” This program would focus on preparedness education for students and families, as well as providing shelter, essential supplies, and communication services during crises. The goal is to ensure that when disasters strike, communities have a reliable place to turn for help.
The authors, Scott Thach, John Garside, and Keysha Baynes, bring decades of combined experience in nonprofit leadership, policy advocacy, and strategic partnership development. Their collective expertise underscores the feasibility of this community-centered approach to disaster resilience.
