Students return to school in Asheville, North Carolina, area as community continues Helene recovery | National & World [Video]

(CNN) — As communities devastated by Helene in western North Carolina work toward a post-storm recovery and dare to picture a return to normalcy, students in the Asheville area have started returning to classrooms.

The Asheville City Schools district will reopen on a modified schedule Monday, according to the district.

Asheville is in Buncombe County but operates an independent city school system. Buncombe County students went back to school Friday.

“We learned from Covid that we can’t just jump back in like everything’s normal,” Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman told CNN’s Amara Walker on Sunday. “So, we’ve developed lessons that are focusing on mental health, allowing students to share and express their feelings on what happened and how they’re going to move forward.”

Helene pummeled western North Carolina as a tropical storm almost exactly one month ago, causing devastating flood damage.

Over a three-day span, the storm dumped so much water over …