First the Pandemic. Now the Storm. Gulf Shores High School Can’t Catch a Break.

and high school football coach, said he did not know when players would return to the waterlogged field; it depends on the extent of the storm’s toll and how long it takes to restore power.

“We are just trying to restore our community to normalcy,” he said, “but I don’t think that that’s going to happen for a while.”

The roads leading to Gulf Shores on Thursday were a traffic-choked mess: work vans, pickup trucks lugging small tractors and trailers with tools, S.U.V.s hauling gas cans and generators. Many residents, nearly all of them without electricity, were roaming to figure out what was open.

The Gulf Shores school district, which has 2,500 students in its elementary, middle and high schools, thought it had worked its way through the coronavirus. When school opened last month, students had the option of learning online or going back to classrooms if they followed the rules. Field trips, pep rallies, assemblies and award ceremonies were not allowed.