Emails reveal more details surrounding West Virginia flood recovery program’s woes

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Amid several emails wondering why a $150 million flood recovery program wasn’t getting money to the people it was supposed to help, one emergency official was told that Gov. Jim Justice had frozen the program because of the legislative session — an explanation the governor’s spokesman vigorously disputes.

About two months before reports that Justice had placed a freeze on the RISE West Virginia program because of a mishandled consulting contract, Russell Tarry, then deputy director of the state Development Office, wrote, “Our work has been put on pause by the Governor’s Office, for their review, due to the end of the Legislative Session.”