COMMENTARY
West Virginia’s flood recovery effort has had an urgency to it because the damage was so widespread and so devastating. We all want people’s lives to be repaired immediately.
The next phase, though, is long-term flood recovery. It’s a necessary step, but also a reminder that healing won’t take place overnight. There’s a reason why “pain” is the first part of the word “painstaking.”
Last week, I drove to Gassaway, where volunteer organizations involved in the flood recovery effort got together to exchange information and ideas.
Michelle Breeland, a volunteer agency liaison with FEMA, gave me a little roadmap of what to expect.
“There’s a huge recovery effort still in front of us,” Breeland said. “Typically, disaster recovery is three to five years, so the big, costly work of building new homes or repairing major damage to homes hasn’t really started yet.
Breeland continued to say, “Typically it takes four to six months to get long term recovery up and moving with case management, so we’re going right into that phase right now where long-term recovery is starting and the families that were hardest hit are getting recovery plans that will get them from where they are to a safe home with their needs met.”
Indeed, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced right before Thanksgiving that West Virginia has been awarded a $5 million disaster case management program grant from FEMA.
A few weeks ago when I talked with state Senator Greg Boso about the needs of flooded Nicholas County residents in his district, he specifically cited the desire for experts who could help flood victims navigate the bureaucracy to make sure their needs are met.
Boso said, “One of the greatest needs is for volunteers with administrative skills who can serve these communities as case managers – who can get involved, meet with people and do the coordination efforts necessary to get the resources, whether it’s manpower or materials, to the place they need to be to get them installed and get them taken care of.”
Disaster case management is meant to connect disaster survivors with a single point of contact to make sure they have the resources necessary to get their lives back on track. It is based on principles we can all get behind – like self-determination, self-sufficiency, flexibility and speed.
Over time, it holds hope for progress. Unfortunately, the recovery won’t be as sudden as the flood itself.