Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced a request for a major disaster declaration for storms and flooding that hit Kanawha, Fayette and Harrison counties last month, and West Virginia’s state emergency services director described West Virginia’s disaster response efforts following recent severe storms.
Morrisey’s announcement came Sunday evening.
The request is for damage from severe weather that occurred August 14 to 18 and seeks federal individual assistance for the three counties and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program assistance statewide.
“Our communities have been hit hard by repeated storms and flooding, and too many West Virginia families are still trying to put their homes and lives back together,” Morrisey said in an announcement distributed by his office.
“Our state, local communities, first responders, and volunteers have stepped up from day one. Now we are asking President Trump to approve this declaration so we can bring additional resources to the families and communities working to recover.”
Joint preliminary damage assessments identified 624 affected residences across Fayette, Harrison and Kanawha counties. Of those, 22 homes were destroyed, 60 sustained major damage, 261 sustained minor damage and 281 were otherwise affected.
Preliminary estimates put total Housing Assistance and Other Needs Assistance associated with the disaster at nearly $4.48 million. That includes about $2.74 million in estimated Housing Assistance and $1.73 million in estimated Other Needs Assistance.
“When families lose their homes or face repairs they cannot possibly afford on their own, government should work together to help them recover,” Morrisey said.
“This is exactly why federal disaster assistance exists. We will continue fighting to make sure these communities have the resources they need to rebuild.”
Earlier on Sunday afternoon, Matthew Blackwood spoke before the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding during legislative interim meetings.
Different regions of West Virginia have been hammered by severe weather over several months.
The said the weather blast that hit Kanawha, Fayette and Harrison counties August 15 to 18 was particularly severe.
“It was another rain event that broke many rain records across the state. Charleston and other areas here in Kanawha County, isolated areas in Fayette County and Harrison County saw extensive damage to homes and roads,” Blackwood said.
About a month before that, a storm with record rainfall and nine tornadoes slammed North Central West Virginia.
“Primarily, it was an extensive system that we what we call a training system, meaning that it brought system after system, day after day through, and the ground was completely saturated. We had numerous record amounts of rain through this event, some going back to the 1985 flood, and we also had nine tornadoes, the most in a single day,” he said.
On August 3rd, a disaster declaration for individual assistance was declared for Lewis, Pleasants, Ritchie and Upshur counties, with payouts so far of just under $13 million.
“So quite a bit of money has been paid out to citizens, which,” he said, “goes directly to them to help in their recovery efforts.”
Officials are still waiting to hear about additional individual assistance for three more counties, public assistance for 12 counties, and hazard mitigation statewide.
He noted particular damage to Robert L. Bland Middle School in Lewis County and said engineers are still reviewing it to determine the exact extent.
“My staff is working with the school system to formulate a repair of the facility. So there are a couple questions that we are working to answer: Is the repair is the repair plan technically feasible, and is it permissible by the local floodplain authority? And if the answer is no to those, then we will work to develop another solution to replace the facility,” he said.
For now, students are attending school at Jackson’s Mill.
In June, flooding hit Boone, Logan and Raleigh counties.
He said individual assistance requests for Boone and Logan counties were denied in early August. An appeal was filed on August 31 but remains pending.
“We have submitted an official appeal to that denial on August 31, but we have not heard back on that appeal yet,” he said.