10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Baldwin seeks answers from FEMA regarding federal response to ’16 flood

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Among those who plan to make the Federal Emergency Management Agency a main topic of discussion at the state Capitol this week is Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier.

Baldwin told MetroNews affiliate WJLS although the assumed purpose of Tuesday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding is a discussion of the agency’s oversight scrutiny regarding grant money in West Virginia, he plans to raise questions about the federal delays that have plagued the state’s recovery efforts, following the 2016 flood.

“Some of our municipalities feel like they have done everything right — in terms of the requirements and the paperwork — in order to be reimbursed for the cost that they had, and that still has not happened in some cases,” he said.

Baldwin was appointed to the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding in 2017.

As for individual homeowners, Baldwin said many have become exasperated by the fact that they have not been able to begin the rebuilding process, more than two years after the catastrophic flooding occurred, because of federal mandates.

Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier

“I hear about it from folks every single day, and I do not begrudge anyone for continuing to raise those issues, because they’re just trying to get on with their lives,” he said.

“If you’re in the pipeline, and you’ve got an environmental review done, and you’re working toward having a home or having a demolition, then it’s very frustrating for me to have to tell them, and for them to have to hear, ‘You’re really farther along then other folks, and I’m terribly sorry it’s taken this long,’ but it is at least moving, at this point.”

He described the delays as having a ripple effect on the region’s economy, specifically in terms of the loss of population and the resulting erosion of the tax base, along with a loss of revenue for area businesses.

Responding to complaints about the management of the RISE West Virginia Disaster Recovery Program, Gov. Jim Justice earlier this year appointed Major General James Hoyer, West Virginia’s adjutant general, to oversee the program.

In May, Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, and then-House Speaker Tim Armstead announced the launch of an investigation into how the state has handled long-term disaster recovery, including actions initiated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and FEMA.





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