It’s been a month since floods ravaged West Virginia’s southern counties, resulting in three deaths and dozens more across two other states. The long road to recovery is just beginning.
On a recent Wednesday night, like on many nights, there was a lively crowd at the Morgantown music venue 123 Pleasant Street. While tunes played on the mainstage, vendors and artists at the coop next door hocked their wares. But on this night, proceeds were going to relief efforts for those West Virginians impacted by the February floods.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily the right approach, but it’s the approach that’s accessible to me, accessible to my friend,” said Tommy Thompson III.
Thompson is a Morgantown musician and one of the benefit’s organizers. He and his friends wanted to do what they could to provide some sense of relief to those impacted by the floods.
“I think building community is really important. I really think that this comes from the bottom up. Relief efforts come from the bottom up,” Thompson said. “We’ve seen a lot of the damage go unnoticed on the national and state levels, in government, and it’s really on us to provide some relief.”
In addition to the three deaths that have been attributed to the flood in West Virginia, four died in neighboring Virginia, and in east Kentucky the death toll is close to 25 people.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey requested a major disaster declaration for 13 counties affected by the flooding on Feb. 17 but federal response has been slow. A presidential declaration of a major disaster was approved Feb. 26, but only for McDowell, Mercer, Mingo and Wyoming counties. Last week, two more counties in West Virginia were approved for financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In Kentucky, 10 counties have been approved. Virginia has yet to receive a federal declaration.
Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Historically, the southern coalfields are a community in Appalachia that are completely neglected,” said Cody Cannon, a standup comedian based in Morgantown who helped organize the benefit show.
“As someone who spent a large part of his youth in the southern coalfields, I think it’s the kind of thing where the community is strong because it’s the community who takes care of each other.”
Cannon was in the region during the flooding, and said in the best case, recovery will take months. He said the consensus seems to be that people will have to help themselves in that process, which is part of why he wanted to put on a benefit.
“They’re still digging mud out of their homes,” he said. “Even though the flood was a few weeks ago, this kind of thing, it’s the kind of thing that it’s gonna take, minimum, six months before these people are back on their feet.”
Zach Shrewsbury is a community organizer who has been coordinating the community response to the floods with his group BlueJay Rising. He said the level of devastation cannot be overstated, with people staying in churches and even in their cars while they try to salvage their homes.
“You can drive through McDowell, Mingo counties, and you’ll see just everyone’s belongings on the side of the road, waiting to be picked up by a trash company or the National Guard,” Shrewsbury said. “It’s like everything in the house, you know. It’s tragic.”
Following the flood, 165 personnel from the West Virginia National Guard were deployed to provide response and recovery assistance in Wyoming, Logan, Mercer, Mingo, McDowell, and Wayne counties. However by early March that number had dropped to just over 100 Guard personnel.
Shrewsbury said as the weeks have passed, communication to population centers has improved, but many isolated enclaves remain underserved, and even disconnected.
“There’s so many small areas like Anawolt, for instance. I believe we are probably the only organization really keeping them supplied with everything they need, the best we can, because they’re so hard to get to,” he said.
Brad Davis is the pastor of five churches in McDowell County, what’s collectively known as the Welch charge of The United Methodist Church. Like Shrewsbury, he said much of his outreach work since the flood – with groups like From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice – has focused on the more isolated hollers, as well as elderly and disabled individuals.
“The community has really rallied around each other, neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers,” Davis said. “But in saying all that, we need a lot more help. It’s going to be a long road of recovery ahead, and we need a lot more resources in order to get back on track.”
Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Davis said the vast majority of the relief he’s seen come into the county has been from private and grassroots efforts like the benefit concert in Morgantown. He said he is heartened to see so much support, but the need is great.
Davis said mud and muck left behind by the floodwaters still has to be cleaned out of basements and ground floors of homes. He said that makes the region’s issues – like water quality, which existed before the flood – stand out now more than ever.
“Prior to the flood, many of these communities were having issues with access to clean water,” Davis said. “So now you have a situation where people in these water-impacted communities are having to try to clean up their homes, their businesses, churches, whatever the case may be, and using dirty water to do it.”
The major disaster declaration from the federal government is a crucial step for recovery, but Davis points out that it only opens up avenues for personal loans and relief.
“It was much needed, and we are grateful for that, but we also need the public assistance component that goes along with that,” he said. “We need the full gamut of resources that both the federal government and the state government can bring to bear here in order for us to be able to recover.”
Back in Morgantown, after the concert, Cannon and Thompson estimate they raised around $4,000 for recovery efforts, along with donations of cleaning supplies, water, and food.
But flood victims will need more resources and awareness on the long path to recovery.
