CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Long-term recovery projects in both Nicholas County and Kanawha County are next on the list for the groups working to help residents in West Virginia’s Flood Zone return to permanent housing seven months after the storms.
“We’re definitely trying to get throughout the state to help people who are in need,” said Habibi Mamone, president of Neighbors Loving Neighbors, a charitable organization first created to collect food donations during The Greenbrier Classic.
Since the June 23 flooding that claimed 23 lives and left entire communities in central and southeastern West Virginia devastated, the reach of Neighbors Loving Neighbors has expanded.
A groundbreaking ceremony for a new cooperative housing project planned in Richwood could be held within a matter of weeks, according to Mamone.
Donations to Neighbors Loving Neighbors will help fund the work that volunteers with Appalachia Service Project and Mennonite Disaster Services will do.
Though no details of the Richwood plans were yet being made public as of Monday morning, the efforts could be similar to the housing projects already underway in Greenbrier County at Rainelle’s Grace Village and Hope Village located in White Sulphur Springs.
The Kanawha County project would be in Clendenin, Mamone said, though the specifics for it were not immediately available.
“We’re all West Virginia VOAD partners. We all sit in the same meetings. Everyone is able to hear all the family cases at the same time and then, through that, we’re able to select and then move forward,” Mamone said.
VOAD stands for Voluntary Organizations Active In Disaster which is overseeing the flood response.
To date, Mamone said Neighbors Loving Neighbors had helped more than 350 West Virginia families.
“What that includes is giving them supplies, building homes, new construction, repairing homes or buying mobile homes,” she explained.
For many flood victims, “They’re in a temporary place, but we still have to come up with a long-term (solution),” Mamone said.
Since the June flood, Neighbors Loving Neighbors, which has no administrative costs, has raised more than $4 million for recovery.
Last week, a donation of $200,000 from Brad Paisley, country music star and Marshall County native, was presented to the organization.
At the same event in White Sulphur Springs, Mamone handed over checks worth $500,000 each to Appalachia Service Project and Mennonite Disaster Services to assist with ongoing home rebuilding work in the flood zone — in Greenbrier County and surrounding counties.
Money is still be raised via the designated 501(c)(3) organization.
For more information on Neighbors Loving Neighbors, go online HERE or contact Mamone via mail at the following address:
“Neighbors Loving Neighbors”
The Greenbrier
Attn: Habibi Mamone
300 West Main Street
White Sulphur Springs, WV 24986
Checks should be made out to “Neighbors Loving Neighbors.”
“The majority of the families we’ve been talking to, they want to stay where they live. They want to stay in their community. That’s where they’re from and that’s where they want to be,” Mamone said.
“If they want to stay, then we’re going to see if we can make it possible for them to stay there.”