Mitigation part of FEMA's plan for flood-prone communities
Acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton visited McDowell County March 21 with U.S. Senator Jim Justice, R-W.Va., to see damage from the Feb. 15 flood firsthand and talk to county and municipal officials about what local recovery efforts need.
On March 20, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said that President Donald Trump had approved his request for Public Assistance in Mercer, McDowell, Monroe and seven other Southern West Virginia counties impacted by the Feb. 15 flood.
Morrisey said the Public Assistance declaration provides supplemental grants to state and local governments and certain private non-profits to cover their costs for debris removal, emergency protective measures and infrastructure restoration.
FEMA has a competitive grant program called Flood Mitigation Assistance, according to agency officials. This program offers funding to state, territory and local governments. Since the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994 was signed into law, funds are used for projects that reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA chooses recipients based on the applicant's ranking of the project, eligibility, and cost-effectiveness of the project.
'There is a program specifically in the FEMA grant system,' Hamilton told an audience at the Welch Armory. 'There are various different programs we're looking to partner with the community to ensure that we rebuild and we rebuild back in a way that makes sense that could mitigate future risks.'
Hamilton said he had spoken with Sheriff James 'Boomer' Muncy about possible flood mitigation remedies near the county 911 center which is next door to the sheriff's department in Welch. FEMA will be looking at other ways to reduce future flood hazards.
'What we encourage you all to do is speak with your local counterparts, speak with public officials so they can categorize and document and grab as many of those requests as possible and they'll route those up to our public assistance programs and that will be routed up to FEMA,' Hamilton said. 'We will then receive those applications and look at areas where we can ensure if there is a chance to recover and also mitigate future risks, those are certainly areas we are certainly very interested in partnering with to ensure we can address them.'
William Swain of Elbert Road, part of Gary in McDowell County, recently visited the Bluefield Daily Telegraph and said that he has seen the results of flood mitigation.
In 2013, a coal mining operation had cut down trees above the end of Elbert Road.
'And when it would rain, the rain would come down the back where they had cut down those trees down the mountain to the road, down another mountain onto the railroad track, over the railroad track, down the street onto a coal boom, United States Steel broken-up sidewalk,' Swain said. 'And this is at Elbert Road, 1303.'
Swain said that the flood waters reached his property and was up over his ankles. Later he went to the McDowell County Commission and later the town of Gary, but was told there nothing they could do, so he decided to go to Charleston and speak with the state Department of Transportation. There he spoke with Paul Mattox, who was then the state's transportation secretary.
'I said Okay, I'm going to call Charleston.
Swain said the chief engineer at that time, Jimmy Wriston, who later become transportation secretary, and a District 10 engineer looked at the problem on Elgood Road.
Work on flood mitigation at Elgood Road started in September 2013 and was finished before Christmas that same year. The old U.S. Steel sidewalk which had been in place since the 1950s was removed.
Swain said the Feb. 15 flood tested the changes that were made back in 2013.
'If it wasn't for Paul Mattox, this flood we had in 2025 would have washed everybody out of Elbert Road,' he said.
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
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