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Assessing Characteristics of Unplanned School Closures that Occurred in the United States in Response to Hurricane Harvey in 2017

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2020

Ashley M. Jackson Open the ORCID record for Ashley M. Jackson [Opens in a new window]  and
Faruque Ahmed
Ashley M. Jackson
Affiliation:
Community Interventions for Infection Control Unit, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Faruque Ahmed*
Affiliation:
Community Interventions for Infection Control Unit, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Faruque Ahmed, MS V18-2, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA30329 (e-mail: FBA5@cdc.gov).
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Abstract

Objective:

Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas on August 24, 2017, caused catastrophic damage that resulted in the closure of many schools and school districts across 4 states. We evaluated the underlying reasons and characteristics of the unplanned school closures to gain insight on how communities may cope with recommended preemptive closures as an intervention for pandemic influenza.

Methods:

Information was extracted from news articles, school websites, and Twitter and Facebook posts previously collected through daily systematic searches of Google, Google News, and Lexis-Nexis. This information was sorted into predefined categories describing the characteristics that may be associated with unplanned school closures that occur during a natural disaster.

Results:

Across Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, there were 3026 unplanned closures. Sixty-three percent of the closures occurred in Texas. The main reasons for the closures were flooding, power outages, and structural damage. The closed schools in Texas were sometimes used as shelters or as locations for providing food or other resources.

Conclusion:

School closures associated with Hurricane Harvey were attributed to both the effects of the hurricane and use for resource allocation. These findings can help inform preparedness planning and response for future hurricane seasons and other large-scale emergencies.

Keywords

hurricanesnatural disastersunplanned school closures
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 125 - 129
Copyright
© 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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