Three teens who lost their homes when the remnants of Typhoon Halong hit Western Alaska earlier this month arrived in Sitka on Oct. 24 to join the Mt. Edgecumbe High School student body.

Mt. Edgecumbe is prepared to accept up to 32 students displaced by the storm and expects more students will enroll this week, Superintendent David Landford said in an email on Oct. 27.

Langford said Mt. Edgecumbe enrollment specialist Marni Bauder was in Anchorage Oct. 22-24, and he himself was there Oct. 23-26, meeting with people displaced by the typhoon and offering enrollment at Edgecumbe as an option for high school-aged kids.

Bauder and Langford visited Anchorage’s Egan Center, which the city and state lined up as an emergency shelter, and the University of Alaska Anchorage Alaska Airlines Center, where the Red Cross is operating a shelter.

“We both met with Red Cross officials and Lower Kuskokwim School District staff,” Langford wrote. “We also met and talked with many parents and relatives.”

“We accepted three students immediately and expect more students this week,” he said. “Some parents were not ready to let their children go to MEHS after the family trauma of the entire evacuation.”

“Marni flew back to MEHS with three students on Friday,” Langford wrote. “Some students already had siblings or friends attending MEHS.”

Meanwhile, Sitkans are finding ways to support the students affected by the devastating storm, and to welcome students who are enrolling after experiencing the disaster.

Edgecumbe students decorated a large box that’s set up in the Sea Mart grocery store entry to accept donations of supplies and other items for the displaced students.

Items include shower slippers, laundry detergent, towels, blankets, school supplies, hygiene products, backpacks, socks, rain gear, rain boots and winter clothing.

MEHS staff said the donation box was full by Sunday morning; staff emptied it and set up a “shop” on campus where students can select essential items.