The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

Displaying items by tag: covid19 in knoxville

IMG 7482An empty corridor at Farragut High School.  Ivy Zhang/Hellbender Press

Despite COVID restrictions, Farragut High students still sought their shine

Hellbender Press intern Ivy Zhang is a junior at Farragut High School. She plans a career in journalism and digital media.

KNOXVILLE — For the 2020-2021 school year, Knox County Schools provided two choices for families: virtual learning or in-person schooling. Many students chose to do virtual school and participated in less extracurricular activities.

Students felt isolated. School clubs halted for the entire school year. The disruption caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) affected the whole world, as well as local communities. 

Farragut High School, No. 2 in Knox County rankings, is a great example of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected students. 

Published in News

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Hard Knox Wire: A brief history of Ktown's worst natural disasters

The Covid-19 pandemic currently could go down in history as Knoxville's worst hard time (to borrow a phrase from Timothy Egan), but a litany of natural disasters preceded the international outbreak of respiratory disease that killed 629 people in Knox County as of Sept. 8, according to the Knox County Health Department. Only half of the county's residents have been vaccinated, according to a New York Times database, and more than 10 percent of the population has been infected with Covid-19, which can carry life-long health implications.

Hard Knox Wire has a great rundown of the Covid crisis and other natural disasters that the city and region have faced in its ongoing Knoxville history series. They include the far-flung effects of the New Madrid earthquake; periodic flooding that devastated downtown and outlying areas before TVA dammed the Tennessee River; a Cocke County plane crash that killed all aboard, including noteworthy Knoxvillians; and, perhaps, appropo, the smallpox and cholera breakouts that struck the city in the 1800s.

History is a great teacher, and thanks to JJ Stambaugh of Hard Knox Wire and Jack Neely of the Knoxville History Project for keeping us on our toes in regard to the past. 

 

Published in Feedbag