The Times continues its countdown of the biggest local stories of 2018.

Cullman County was hit hard by the flu in early 2018, and the Cullman County School System was one of the hardest hit.

In the 2017-2018 flu season, there was widespread activity for three months, and a total of 185 pediatric deaths around the nation were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The outbreak was bad enough in Alabama that Gov. Kay Ivey declared a State Public Health Emergency in January as flu cases caused school closings and filled hospitals beyond capacity.

The flu outbreak saw Cullman County School attendance dip to around 70 percent in February, with more than 1,000 of the system’s 9,600 students out sick, plus several teachers and staff were absent as well, either sick themselves or tending to their ailing children.

With not enough substitutes to fill in as teachers and bus drivers, the school system joined Marshall County in closing to allow students, faculty and staff get better.

“It just created a situation that was not good for education or instruction,” Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette said in February. “And it was also threatening our ability to supervise all of our kids.”

The time off also provided schools the chance for a thorough cleaning and disinfection of desks and other vectors of flu transmission — door knobs, lockers, water fountains among others.

After the two-day closing of the county’s schools, the schools’ attendance returned to around 90 percent the following week.