JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Eighth-grade students at St. Mary’s school in Johnson City documented the effects of Hurricane Helene as it was happening.

“It was live while I was writing it, so I had to update it multiple times. And my final draft, my final draft was really interesting to read,” student Emma Minnick said.

“It was mainly different because it wasn’t history, it was live, and it was updating as I was going,” student Carson Champney said. “And so whenever I was writing it, like, it just kept going and going.”

The project was the brainchild of Language Arts and Social Studies teacher Kim Kenneson, who replaced the yearly capstone research project with this once-in-a-lifetime living history assignment.

“We researched not only news reports, but also social media posts, interviewed face-to-face the head of the Unicoi County Hospital, Dr. Sean Ochsenbein. We even read the obituaries of some of the victims and really learned about the human aspect of this tragedy,” Kenneson said.

The lives lost during Helene hit home for many, sparking empathy for Minnick.

“Some of the teachers here lost their like grandparents, and things like Bertha Mendoza at Impact Plastics. And I feel really sorry for her,” Minnick said.

For Champney, it was the financial toll of the storm that stood out the most.

“With all of the updating the live news, like, one day you would have a damage toll of $27 million and then it would go to $35 million,” Champney said.

The project was a big opportunity and students in Kenneson’s class took full advantage of it.

“I just felt like this was a huge step forward in their learning skills and their life skills is what information can you trust and what information can you not trust,” Kenneson said.