CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Thursday’s Kanawha County Commission meeting was almost entirely dedicated to updating the June 23 flood recovery.
Commissioner Dave Hardy said the flood debris removal numbers are staggering about 55 days since the flood.
“There have been 34 million pounds of flood debris removed from the Elk River area since the flood. If you average that out, that’s 618,000 pounds per day for 55 straight days in a row.”
The total cost of removing debris was $2.3 million, Hardy said, but FEMA has made good on reimbursing the money so far.
Commission President Kent Carper also introduced a new FEMA program, similar to its hazard mitigation “buy-out” program, but designed to keep residents in their communities.
“The new program modifies that. It allows funds that weren’t available before to make homes safer and suitable, and provide money to keep them in a neighborhood. Elevating them, doing other things like that,” he explained.
Debris removal curbside pickup will be ending Monday, the same day the State of Emergency expires exactly 60 days from the flood.
“We’ve had almost no curbside pickup in the last few days. That program is coming to an end and I think it’s reasonable for us to do that,” Hardy said. “We want to publicize that so anybody that might have something left for pickup go ahead and get the material out there.”
The ending of the State of Emergency also signifies a transition into the long-term recovery period, which Hardy and Carper both believed would be a matter of years.
“We are evolving from the State of Emergency to the long recovery, and the recovery is going to take a lot longer than the 60-day State of Emergency.”
The Kanawha County Commission meets again Tuesday, Sept. 6.