Flood Relief Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Organizations Set To Provide Resources, Donations After Kentucky Flooding

Appalachians are still feeling the effects of flooding in eastern Kentucky, southern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia. At least 37 people have died as a result, according to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

For people wanting to help, Appalachian film and media company Appalshop, based in hard hit Whitesburg, has compiled a list of resources and organizations on its website. Many immediate needs have been met, according to the post, but several mutual aid organizations in the region are looking for cleaning supplies and direct donations.

The American Red Cross Central Appalachia Region is looking for volunteers to train and are also asking for monetary donations. Donations can be made on the organization’s website, but can also be made by calling 1-800-REDCROSS or by texting REDCROSS to 90999.

Some colleges like Eastern Kentucky University and WVU are also using their emergency funds to help their affected students from the region.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is accepting applications for both individuals and families to receive federal assistance.

Flood Protection On List Of Upcoming W.Va. Legislative Interim Meetings

With flash flooding seemingly on the rise throughout West Virginia, Randy Yohe spoke with committee member Sen. Stephen Baldwin. The Democrat and Senate Minority Leader from Greenbrier County has been at the forefront of meeting the challenges of flood prevention.

Among the meetings scheduled for next week’s legislative interim session is the Joint House and Senate Committee on Flooding.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: West Virginia leads the nation in flooding disasters over the past decade. Is that just because we’re the Mountain State and valleys come with mountains, or are we lacking in mitigation plans and efforts?

Baldwin: Both. It’s a result of our topography and geography. There are just some things we cannot change about that. But I think we can do a better job of planning and mitigating through our infrastructure. And that’s the point of all these projects, rebuilding homes, elevating them, tearing down structures that were in the floodplain or in the floodway. And then allowing folks to rebuild in a place that has stormwater systems, roadways, culverts, infrastructure, streams, creeks or there is a dam.There’s a very long list of infrastructure items we need to do to make sure it doesn’t happen as much in the future to the extent we can control it.

Yohe: That leads into the question that we often hear after flash floods and the damage and even deaths that they cause. Talking about preventive stream cleaning and mismanaged floodplain construction, but often it seems there’s little action. Do we need to legislate a dedicated act, a law that funds those flood mitigation efforts?

Baldwin: I was very encouraged to hear Senator Swope say last time that flood relief and flood mitigation needs to be one of our major infrastructure categories moving forward. I agree with him wholeheartedly, not just generally, but specifically in relation to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that we’ve received. Because this is going to save lives in the future and it’s going to save a significant amount of money because as you said, we deal with this all the time. If we do a better job planning on the front end, I think we’re better prepared. And the state resiliency office is in the midst right now of finalizing a new flood plan. When the June 2016 flood hit, we had a plan that was sitting on a shelf for years and wasn’t being enacted. So I think that’s the key. We’ve got to have a plan. And we’ve got to have people involved actively in executing that plan.

Yohe: Any key mitigation elements in that plan, current day technologies, like the new stream gauges and otherwise that need implementation and action right away?

Baldwin: We’ve done a little bit. That’s a good example of stream gauges. We’ve done a little bit of work on that over the last couple of years because what we had before, if you look at the old plan that was sitting on a shelf, it actually had recommendations about stream gauges. Unfortunately, they weren’t realized. So we had stream gauges on rivers, but where we are seeing flooding now are not necessarily along our major rivers, but along our streams and creeks. And so that’s where we did not have gauges. So we have added some gauges since the June 2016 flood in areas that flooded. But, we need more, badly. That’s a good example of a growing edge of infrastructure.

Yohe: You can gauge the challenge on a creek or stream. Gauging is one thing, cleaning it out is another, isn’t it?

Baldwin: It is, and that falls to the Conservation Department, which is an important partner in flood mitigation. However, that’s one of the first things that people always talk about is dredging, we need to do a better job of dredging. If you look at the data, and you look back at that previous flood mitigation plan and the plan that they’re working on now, I’m not sure that the reality matches what we think it is. I’m not sure that dredging is the silver bullet that we think it is. It’s important, but, again, I just don’t think it’s that silver bullet.

Yohe: The agenda for the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding includes you presenting an update on ARPA funds for demolition. What’s that about?

Baldwin: We are hoping to get a pot of money to be able to do flood demolitions that the Commerce Department could not do with the funds they received from the federal government. Basically, they didn’t have enough money to do everything. So we want to propose to the legislature and the governor that we set aside some money specifically to do that from our funds.

Yohe: How do you think the national rise in climate change impacts West Virginia flooding?

Baldwin: If you look at the data, it shows that we are on the leading edge of this with West Virginia having the highest risk for flooding in the United States. And I certainly think climate change plays a part in that. We have seen more storms, with higher intensity, higher volume of rain, for example, getting nine inches in a couple of hours. So the frequency and intensity of storms has changed. And that has a huge effect on us when you consider our geography and topography. We obviously had a major flood in 2016. That affected a huge portion of the state. But we have had significant flooding events across the state since then: obviously in Huntington, in your area, in southern West Virginia, McDowell County just a couple of weeks ago. So this is continually happening. And we have got to continue to make it a priority rather than just being reactive.

Six Years After Deadly, Destructive W.Va. Flood, Recovery Continues

On June 23, 2016, torrential rainfall devastated 12 West Virginia counties. The flash flooding took 23 lives and caused overwhelming destruction. Six years later, recovery efforts continue, with proactive flood mitigation leading the way.

More than 10,000 flood victims registered with FEMA after the 2016 disaster. Several thousand families were not able to rebuild their homes on the limited federal dollars they received.

Jenny Gannaway is executive director of West Virginia’s Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). This association of independent helping agencies works with volunteers, grants and donations.

She explained the challenge for so many families.

“When you only get $33,000 from FEMA, and you need $60,000 to replace your home,” Gannaway said. “We go in and use their $33,000 and use other donated dollars to make sure their home was rebuilt. And we use volunteers which saves a lot of money.”

The RISE West Virginia program, dedicated to 2016 flood recovery, is under VOAD’s administrative umbrella.

Gannaway said VOAD has finished restoring nearly 2400 flood ravaged homes, referring 400 more to the RISE program. She said the last 20 RISE homes on the list should be ready by this fall.

The group worked to not just restore, but relocate numerous homes – even sections of neighborhoods – out of flood zones. She said when families couldn’t or wouldn’t move away from that creek or stream, VOAD rebuilt with flood mitigation top of mind.

“We’d build their home at least two foot above what the actual flood stage was,” Gannaway said. “So if the flood stage was six blocks high, we went two feet higher to give them extra protection.”

More than 120 bridges were destroyed in the 2016 flood. Gannaway says VOAD has fully restored 57 of those bridges. She says all bridge rebuilds are done with stream and flood mitigation construction practices.

“We get culverts out of streams and get in-bank abutments out of streams,” Gannaway said. “We build the bridges from the top of the bank to the top of the other bank so that it’s opening up the streams and it’s not causing a dam to block the stream and flood homes.”

Gannaway said VOAD was down to 50 or so bridges to repair or replace, but she says with all the recent flooding, there are about 100 bridges now on VOAD’s list.

Huntington Residents Affected By Floods Will Soon Benefit From Marshall University Thrift Store

Huntington residents affected by the recent floods will soon benefit from a thrift store run by Marshall University for students.

Under normal circumstances, the Marshall University Thrift Store takes items donated from dormitory housing to be resold to students at a reduced rate. Items at the thrift store include clothing, furniture, sheets, pillows, and home appliances.

Next week, the thrift store is giving away 60 bins of donated items to members of the Huntington community affected by the May 6th flood.

With student volunteers living off campus during the summer, the Marshall University Sustainability Department is looking for community volunteers to help sort through items from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and operate the store during the give-away. The Marshall University Sustainability Department will supply lunch to volunteers.

You can volunteer for the flood relief event here.

The thrift store is located at 331 Hal Greer Boulevard in Huntington. The Marshall University Thrift store will be giving out store items to residents Monday, May 23rd, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Gov. Jim Justice And Huntington Mayor Discuss Steps For Flood Prevention

Gov. Jim Justice joins Huntington Mayor Steve Williams at Four-Pole Creek to discuss flooding.

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams met alongside Four-Pole Creek Monday morning to discuss flood prevention and response.

Justice said that once the damage is assessed, the State needs to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lessen pressure from flood bottlenecks. “Get these people qualified for FEMA,” he said. “If that’s possible.”

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams Outlining The Four-Pole Creek Watershed

Justice and Williams both emphasized that flooding needs to be addressed on the local, county, and state level due to the wide geographical reach of the problem and the high cost of engineering solutions.

“All of us, the mayor, the governor, the house, the Senate, try to do anything and everything we can with dollars that we have available to try to help these folks,” Justice said.

Gov. Jim Justice and Huntington First Responders

The Four-Pole Creek watershed covers the majority of Huntington and its surrounding areas. A series of county waterways converge into Four-Pole Creek, and bottlenecks starting at the Enslow community, often the site of the city’s worst flooding.

Concrete changes the shape of a watershed, reducing absorption and increasing runoff. Justice and Williams noted that infrastructure must be built in a way that promotes development and prevents overflows.

“We want development all over the state of West Virginia,” Williams said. “In order for us to have the development that we know that we want, that we deserve, we also have to make sure that we have the capacity in place to be able to prepare.”

Justice encouraged West Virginia citizens affected by the flood to document the damage and contact the West Virginia Emergency Management Division at emd.wv.gov.

Inside Appalachia: Mentally & Emotionally Recovering from W.Va.’s 1,000 Year Flood

There is more to recovery than physically rebuilding a house, or a building. Communities are also recovering mentally and emotionally. Dr. Carol Smith is a Professor of Counseling at Marshall University, says finding basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter is just the beginning.

Inside Appalachia co-producer and host Jessica Lilly sat down with Dr. Carol Smith to discuss the year of mental and emotional recovery that West Virginia faced since the flooding of June 2016. Parts of this interview are included in a special TV show, “Inside Appalachia: A Year of Recovery.” You can watch the show Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. on WVPB or listen on radio.

In the days and weeks after the flood, the words, “West Virginia strong” rang out on signs and across social media. But Dr. Smith says, if you’re having a hard time coping, even to this day, it doesn’t mean you’re weak, it means you’re human.

Watch the full interview here: