CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginians flooded out in the June 23 storms that devastated parts of the Mountain State are not going to see all they lost fully restored for them by the federal government.
Disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is designed only as “a step toward recovery,” said Albie Lewis, federal coordinating officer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency who’s working in West Virginia.
Those who qualify for individual assistance in the 12 counties on the Federal Disaster Declaration, he said, receive enough “to get them out of unsafe locations and get them in safer locations to provide them the way ahead, but was never meant to make them whole.”
As of Friday morning, 6,400 registrations for individual help had been filed with FEMA, accounting for an estimated 20,000 people.
Money already paid out was approaching $24 million, with $19 million of that amount in housing assistance. Another $10 million in individual assistance had already been approved and was set to soon be allocated, Lewis said.
Registrations with FEMA are the initial step in a process for West Virginians who saw their homes damaged or destroyed in historic flooding. The next step is inspections.
On Friday, 4,486 inspections had been completed by 66 inspectors in the field, according to FEMA numbers.
“There’s a process that everyone has to go through, but that can be a frustrating process. I think we all know that,” said House Speaker Tim Armstead (R-Kanawha, 40).
“Particularly when you’re homeless, you’re trying to find a path forward to be able to decide whether you’re going rebuild your home or you’re going to get a new home or whatever the situation might be.”
FEMA payments for destroyed homes are capped at $33,000, no matter a property’s value.
For more on what to expect after registering with FEMA, click here.
Armstead, whose own home was flooded, heard the frustrations of many property owners during a Thursday community meeting at the Clendenin Volunteer Fire Department. A similar meeting was scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Friday at Elkview Baptist Church.
“We’re going to have to do a lot of just trying to work through red tape individually with individual homeowners,” Armstead predicted on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
To help with the red tape, federal officials were staffing 11 Disaster Recovery Centers at the following locations in West Virginia:
Greenbrier County
Mobile Disaster Recovery Center
Southeastern Labor Council, AFL-CIO
65 West Main St.
White Sulphur Springs, WV 24986
Town Hall
201 Kanawha Ave.
Rainelle, WV 25962
Kanawha County
Kanawha County School Operations Center
3300 Pennsylvania Ave
Charleston, WV 25302
Nicholas County
City of Richwood City Hall
6 White Ave.
Richwood, WV 26261
Nicholas County High School
30 Grizzly Ln.
Summersville, WV 26651
Summers County
Summers County Office
451 1st Ave.
Hinton, WV 25951
Roane County
Geary Elementary School
9538 Clay Rd.
Left Hand, WV 25251
Webster County
Webster Springs Municipal Building
143 McGraw Ave.
Webster Springs, WV 26288
Clay County
Clay County High School
1 Panther Drive
Clay, WV
Fayette County
Midland Trail High School
26719 Midland Trail
Hico, WV 25854
Pocahontas County
McClintic Public Library
500 8th St.
Marlinton, WV 24954
The newest additions were the sites in Fayette County and Pocahontas County.
As of Friday, hours at all of the DRCs were from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
In addition to visiting a Disaster Recovery Center, FEMA registrations can be submitted by phone at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) and online at DisasterAssistance.gov.
From Friday through July 13, FEMA mitigation specialists will be on hand to answer questions and offer home improvement tips at in-store information centers in two counties:
Nicholas County
Hardman’s
1300 Webster Road, Summersville
During normal store hours
Greenbrier County
Lowe’s
20 Gateway Boulevard, Lewisburg
7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Going forward, Jimmy Gianato, director of the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said many flood-damaged homes will need renovations.
“A lot of these structures are in the floodplain and there will be some requirements, if they’re substantially damaged, to allow them to repair and stay in that location,” Gianato said.
One option is the elevation of houses. Another option is the mitigation program, also called the buyout program, but Gianato said that is not first choice.
“One of the challenges with the buyout program is it tends to destroy the tax base and destroys the community,” he explained on “Talkline.”
“When you just go in and buy out, wholesale, complete sections of a location, then it never comes back. That property can only be used for green space.”