CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Manufactured housing units from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be a temporary option, in the coming weeks and months, for victims of the June 23 flood in two additional West Virginia counties — Nicholas County and Clay County.
It’s a change, said Greg Fitzwater, president of the Clay County Commission, from FEMA’s initial assessment of available rental properties in Clay County.
“I said, ‘Where are they going to rent at?’ They said, ‘We did a study and here’s the results’ and they looked at it and said, ‘Aw, there ain’t no places to rent to Clay County,'” Fitzwater told MetroNews Thursday of the reconsideration.
“That’s when they kind of switched toward maybe getting us some housing.”
In Nicholas County, Shawn Wolford, director of the Office of Emergency Services, said the FEMA mobile homes would likely be most in demand in Richwood.
“(There’s) Not a huge rental availability there in the community. I’m sure a lot of people are able to stay with friends and relatives, but I’m not sure how long-term that will be,” Wolford said.
“That’s probably the biggest area that we know of that will have a need for them.”
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced the approval for the direct temporary housing for Clay County and Nicholas County on Wednesday.
Factors considered included the rural nature of the areas, the number of households meeting criteria for MHUs and the lack of rental resources within a reasonable commuting distance. Financial assistance, FEMA determined, would not be enough.
Flood victims in Greenbrier County and Kanawha County have already been eligible for manufactured housing units, viewed as living spaces “of last resort.”
“The availability of MHUs in Clay and Nicholas Counties fills a critical void in those areas for temporary housing for those who have been displaced as more permanent solutions are determined,” Tomblin said in a statement.
The first step in possibly securing a FEMA mobile home, which can be utilized for up to 18 months during flood rebuilding, is to register with the agency by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362), going online to DisasterAssistance.gov or visiting a local Disaster Recovery Center.
As of Thursday morning, more than 8,000 households in the 12 Federal Disaster Declaration counties had registered with varying degrees of needs.
Throughout the flood recovery process, “We’ve had some issues of persons that were saying they haven’t been helped, but they haven’t completed their registration process,” Wolford said.
“We’d obviously encourage people to make sure they’ve completed that registration process and went through that and that should open up the doors to get them the help they need.”
FEMA was using the registrations to gauge housing needs.
“That’s one of the questions they ask, ‘What are your housing plans immediately? What are your housing plans in the next two weeks, months, etc.?’ So they begin to identify the need there,” Wolford explained.
With temporary housing on the way, Fitzwater said flood recovery work in Clay County was beginning to shift.
“We’re kind of needing to get something set up here before very long and start tearing houses down that are not fixable, but we’ve had an awful lot of help here and that’s been a blessing,” Fitzwater said.
“It’s going to be a long recovery.”