HUMPHREYS COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Recovery from the August 21st flooding in Waverly is going to be a slow process and residents of the county have a long road ahead. The Humphreys County School System took a big hit, as well with many of the schools in Waverly having to be completely rebuilt.

Earlier this week FEMA met with Humphreys County school officials to begin the process of surveying the damage.

“We’ve had our first meeting. TEMA is also involved with this and helping us out. Brenda Moore is wonderful. She’s kind of helping us out, putting us in the right direction. We had site visits yesterday. They took some measurements. And the way they talked, it sounds like they are wanting to help us. But we’ve still got this school, the elementary school, and Waverly Central High School next week,” Humphreys County School Superintendent Richard Rye said standing outside of Waverly Junior High School.

They started out by looking at the McEwen facilities, which had been a reunification site for students from the washed-out schools. But it’s not just the facility, it’s also the roads.

“We’re having to add gravel and things for the buses to reroute them to make the traffic logistics for those extra students. They wanted to look at that road and how we had that set up on the temporary end for them to hopefully cover some of that gravel and some of that labor,” Rye said.

The federal assistance will be appreciated to take the burden off of Humphreys County taxpayers to rebuild entire schools, but this is going to take a long time. Rye believes the entire process could take three to four years.

“By the time you go through environmental, purchasing your lands, checking everything out, the architect, making sure we build these facilities to last, to last us a while,” Rye said.

Right now the school system is able to provide breakfast and lunch for students, and in the near future, they hope to provide afterschool food for those in need.