WHEELING, W.Va. — Volunteer labor is in demand in northern West Virginia where cleanup from the July flooding is in the “mucking out” stage in parts of Marshall County, Marion County and Wetzel County especially.
Since the storms of July 23 and July 28-29, Sherri Schafer, executive director of Community Lutheran Partners and July flood relief coordinator for West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active In Disaster July, said neighbors have largely been helping neighbors.
“That response is important, but neighbors start to wear out and that’s when the outside teams coming in can be a huge help,” she said.
On Wednesday morning, a volunteer reception center opened for the first time at Wheeling’s WesBanco Arena.
From 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily except for Sundays, volunteer teams will be dispatched from that site to work at locations in Ohio County and Marshall County.
“They come there and then we match their skill set with a job that needs done and we find a team leader and then we deploy them out to the disaster area,” Schafer said.
As of Wednesday, the focus for those volunteers was winding down in Ohio County and shifting to Marshall County.
“McMechen was really hard hit, so we need teams that can come in and help us muck out homes that had water in basements and on first floors,” Schafer reported.
For volunteer work in Ohio County and Marshall County, teams or individuals can register by calling 1-866-786-4173.
Other volunteer coordination hubs were operating out of Hundred High School in Wetzel County and North Marion High School in Marion County.
Additionally, the American Red Cross was coordinating volunteers and relief donations.
Hundred and Mannington sustained the most significant damage last weekend, according to Schafer who was part of the relief response to the 2016 Flood in central and southeastern West Virginia.
“In 2016 was the first time that we set up volunteer reception centers like we’re doing now,” she told MetroNews.
“It was the first time that we were able to use centralized locations to send out volunteers from, especially spontaneous volunteers, people from the community who just show up but don’t have a national team that they’re affiliated with.”
In all, a State of Emergency was declared in eight counties: Monongalia, Marion, Harrison, Tucker, Taylor, Wetzel, Ohio and Marshall.
People needing assistance with flood recovery can call 1-844-983-5663, 1-844-WV-FLOOD.
Monetary donations for flood victims are being accepted through West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active In Disaster.