Flood resilience office funded after 2016 but more study needed, advocate says
Major flooding struck north central West Virginia in late July, killing at least two people and damaging dozens of homes. Lewis and Upshur counties bore the brunt of the storm, according to the Associated Press.
The disaster comes nearly a decade after a massive 2016 flood that affected a wider area of the state and killed nearly two dozen people. That flood prompted state officials to tap state coffers for relief money and create an office dedicated to reducing the impact of future floods, but little has been done since, the AP reported.
Brendan Muckian-Bates, a policy advocate for the Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition, pointed to recent funding for the state’s Flood Resiliency Office as a small step in the right direction toward reducing the likelihood and impact of flooding. But he said more needs to be done, and more needs to be studied regarding the latest floods in north central West Virginia.