WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has several face-to-face meetings scheduled Wednesday on Capitol Hill to plead West Virginia’s case for long term flood recovery funding.
Tomblin told MetroNews he’ll meet with staff members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the director of the Office of Budget Management and the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Tomblin sent a letter to President Barack Obama last month requesting $310 million of recovery funding above what FEMA is providing following the June 23 flood. Tomblin has now decided on the face-to-face meetings because competition for the funds will increase with the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
“We need to make sure that West Virginia is heard and we’re not forgotten about because of all of the most recent news on flooding,” Tomblin said. “We need to make sure that we get our fair share to make sure our people in our communities get the help that they need.”
Tomblin favors using the long term money to look at what communities devastated in the flood can look like in the future—-moving residents and businesses out of the flood zone.
“We need to be able to put the infrastructure, the water, the sewer in (areas) where people can more and be out of the flood zone,” he said.
West Virginia was one of the state’s named in a funding bill passed by Congress two weeks ago which set aside $500 million for a handful of states. The state has already learned it will receive $17 million in block grants.
Tomblin plans to be direct during Wednesday’s meetings talking about the flood damage and the state’s struggling economy.
“I’ll make the point very clear that these are people that don’t have a lot of money and are hard-working people but because of the economy things have been tough here the last year or so,” Tomblin said. “I’ll be able to plead our case and answer questions that they have—I think it’s going to be very important.”