As Communities Clean Up, Lawmakers Question Lack Of Flood Discussion

West Virginia lawmakers are in Lewis County this week for interim meetings, but Democrats in the House of Delegates are frustrated with the lack of flooding discussion on the agenda.

The meetings, held at Stonewall Resort June 22-24, are the first meeting of legislators since the adjournment of the 2025 Legislative Session. Amidst site visits to Mountaineer Food Bank, MannCave Distillery and Lambert’s Winery, the WVU Fire Academy, FBI offices and more, the Committee on Flooding is not scheduled to meet.

In a post to their Substack Sunday, West Virginia House Democrats said the exclusion is a missed opportunity in the immediate aftermath of devastating flash floods last week.

Fourteen counties are also still building back after catastrophic flooding in the south of the state in February.

In their message, Democrats also continue to call out the lack of funding for the Flood Resiliency Trust Fund. The fund, which would help pay for efforts to make future floods less severe, was created by Senate Bill 677 during the 2023 legislative session. A flood resiliency plan required by the law was created in 2024 but has never been implemented. Efforts to appropriate money to the trust fund have similarly failed.

The next interim meetings are scheduled for September 7-9 at the state capitol, and may serve as the basis for a rumored special session of the legislature.