Two minibuses belonging to a school for young people with special needs and disabilities were stripped for parts by thieves.
The car park at Aurora Brooklands School in Leyland "resembled an elephants' graveyard", school staff said.
The bonnets had been removed, exposing the seriously damaged engines.
Principal Sarah Gregory said local people had rallied round the school in its hour of need to help pay for repairs.
Ms Gregory said the theft was discovered by a staff member who was visiting the school site to make sure there were no issues following the recent bad weather.
"It's certainly been a week and a half - they are pretty done over," she said.
"It was less a car park more an elephants' graveyard - the state of the vehicles is hard to describe as the front ends have completely gone... the lights, the bonnets, everything."
She added staff had to plan how to ensure the devastation did not traumatise students.
Ms Gregory said: "They are such a vital part of our school day - our children all have a level of neurodivergence which means routine is really important to them."
Ms Gregory added: "We had to put tarpaulin on them because the visual impact would have been massive on the children."
The school has hopes the thieves will soon be caught, because although they put petroleum jelly over two CCTV cameras in the compound, they were recorded clearly on others.
Ms Gregory paid tribute to local people who have helped the school.
"We have had so much support from the community from offers of buses to help with repairs.
"That's been a really nice focus for us. We are telling [the children] when bad things happen there are good people who will step up and support.
"So there's been a lot of good that has come out of a negative situation."