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Legislators hear details of challenges, ongoing recoveries from June flood

By ANDREA LANNOM

The Register-Herald

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Officials from towns in Kanawha and Greenbrier counties Tuesday detailed challenges and ongoing recovery efforts after last June’s devastating floods.

National Park Service personnel scramble to get sandbag barriers up around the old bank in Glen Jean as flood waters persist after heavy rains in June.
(Photo by Brad Davis)

County and city officials told members of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Flooding about challenges they faced after the flood, including what some said was a need for a unified chain of command and problems with getting consistent answers for residents in the flood’s aftermath.

Officials also highlighted several solutions they felt would help in the future, including what one official said was a need for more stream gauges and flood monitoring devices.

The committee held its first meeting last month. The Legislature created the committee to address flooding issues in the state.

Co-chair Delegate Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said after hearing Tuesday’s testimony, he is interested in pursuing whether National Incident Management System, or NIMS, training needs to be pushed at the county level.

NIMS is a comprehensive national approach to incident management that is applicable to all jurisdictional levels and is intended to apply to a full spectrum of potential incidents, hazards and impacts.

Lloyd Haynes, who was mayor of White Sulphur Springs at the time of the flood, said one of the problems he experienced was getting compensated for flood expenses.

“We had problems depending on who we were dealing with in FEMA how efficient we were in getting our money back,” Haynes said. “I understand they had a huge job in front of them. There were some things we were told we couldn’t do and there was now somewhat of a problem being reimbursed with some monies we were previously told was OK.”

Representatives from Clendenin also spoke, including Kevin Clendenin, the town’s fire chief. Clendenin said he felt having coordination with the state to help organize efforts would have helped.

One of his concerns was about attempts to coordinate meetings held at city hall. He said what he witnessed was residents being told many different things about what they were able to do.

“This would change over months of time where maybe you come in and you can never use the property for anything,” Clendenin said. “Then three or four months later, someone else is building a house on it. Did the rules change or were they throwing stuff out there without knowing the facts in the rebuilding phase?”

Shaun Wolford, who served as Rainelle’s fire chief at the time of the flood and now is director of the Division of Homeland Security of Nicholas County, had concerns about the consistency of answers about what people could do. He said this could have resulted from a difference in interpretation.

“There were times when you could talk to one FEMA person and get one answer and talk to a different person and get another answer,” he said.

One thing he said he believed could help is more stream gauges and flood monitoring devices, particularly mentioning Nicholas County. He said funding is an issue on how many can be employed and at what locations.

Wolford also said he believed legislators should continue to support the state radio network, calling it “indispensable.” He also said having adequate water rescue teams throughout the state would help. He said he is working with others to establish a team in Nicholas County.

Email: [email protected]; follow on Twitter @AndreaLannom

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