CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the West Virginia National Guard will be dispatched this week to the areas of Boone County, one of three which are under a State of Emergency after last week’s floods.
The Governor declared the State of Emergency following heavy rains on June 22nd which caused high water that damaged more than 120 homes in Boone County alone.
“Missions like this we’ve done in the past. It’s basically conducting debris removal operations,” said Captain Mike Garcia of the West Virginia National Guard.
Thirty Guard members have been activated. The teams will be equipment operators with loading and hauling equipment to move household debris to a collection location.
“We’ve got loader teams, dump teams, and skid-steers and we’ll go around those areas and take any debris caused by the weather and the flooding and it is piling up, we’ll be able to remove that, ” he explained.
Garcia said at this point there has been no mission to haul relief supplies to victims as has been done in previous flood events. They are also disallowed from doing any work to assist homeowners on their own private property.
“West Virginia National Guard is not legally authorized to enter or conduct work on private property. Residents need to move any debris and bring it to the curb so that as we get on the ground, we’ll be able to assess where it will go,” Garcia added.