WV officials count steep flood costs, consider recovery concerns amid FEMA turmoil

By Mike Tony

Charleston Gazette-Mail

Next week will mark 10 months and six months since flood events devastated Southern West Virginia and Northern West Virginia, respectively, prompting federal disaster declarations and leaving a combined 12 people dead.

West Virginia officials counted steep costs beyond the incalculable loss of life and reported lingering recovery efforts to state lawmakers at an interim legislative session meeting Tuesday, demonstrating the massive and potentially soon-to-grow liabilities the floodprone state’s taxpayers bear amid Federal Emergency Management Agency downsizing and turmoil under the Trump administration.

Presentations from West Virginia Emergency Management Division Director G.E. McCabe and state Department of Transportation Secretary and Division of Highways Commissioner Stephen Rumbaugh indicated floods has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in recovery funding and required repair work from hundreds of state employees.

The costs loom especially large given the long-term increase in major flood event frequency in West Virginia as regional advocacy groups call for greater federal flood resiliency measures and the state faces a future of more extreme weather without budget support for the flood resiliency trust purse state lawmakers created in 2023 but did not fund.

Over $52 million distributed via FEMA Individual Assistance

McCabe told the Joint Legislative Flooding Committee on Tuesday that roughly $40.5 million has been distributed to 5,390 families through the FEMA’s Individual Assistance program, which provides funds directly to eligible individuals and families, in response to the February flooding that swept through southern West Virginia.

The Individual Assistance was granted in Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Raleigh, Wayne and Wyoming counties, McCabe said, adding that Public Assistance — a FEMA program that supports state and local governments and certain nonprofits — was granted in those counties plus Boone, Greenbrier, Lincoln and Summers counties.

The Public Assistance has come with the federal government covering 90% of eligible costs, McCabe indicated.

Roughly $11.5 million was distributed to 1,158 households in Marion and Ohio counties in response to the June flooding, which left nine people dead and was West Virginia’s deadliest flood since a June 2016 deluge that left 23 people dead and displaced more than 2,000.

Rumbaugh reported that 560 DOH employees were engaged at the peak of repair work prompted by the February flooding. McDowell County had the highest number of DOH employees engaged with 107, followed by Logan and Wayne counties with 52 each.

The June flooding triggered engagement of 240 DOH employees at the peak of repair work: 110 in Marion County, 97 in Ohio County and 33 in Monongalia County, Rumbaugh indicated.

Flooding events this year have damaged more than 710 miles of roads across West Virginia, Rumbaugh indicated, with the most damaged road miles located in McDowell (267) and Wyoming (87) counties, according to Rumbaugh’s presentation.

Those counties struggle with poverty, exacerbating recovery efforts. Wyoming County’s percentage of people in poverty in 2023, 36.2%, was the state’s highest and more than triple the national rate.

“McDowell took the brunt of the punishment,” Rumbaugh said.

Of 309 total DOH emergency projects spanning February to June, 65 (21%) remain incomplete, including 49 from February, according to division data.

Rumbaugh, who was appointed DOT secretary and DOH commissioner by Gov. Patrick Morrisey in January, told the flooding panel his agency “came up with different ways and how to get more people, more equipment from farther away to respond” between the February and June flooding events.

Acknowledging incomplete emergency projects remaining, Rumbaugh said some are for “minor things” like addressing a guardrail or paving. Rumbaugh warned that bridge replacements can take years.

“When you replace a bridge, to go through the permitting process to get it designed, to get 'Letting all of us down': Morrisey National Guard oversight panned in WV and DC materials, that process can take up to two years,” Rumbaugh said. “So some of these take a little bit longer than we’d like.”

Of 88 emergency projects in McDowell County resulting from events from February through June, 25 are incomplete, according to DOH data. None of 16 such projects in Ohio County have been completed, per DOH data.

FEMA turmoil, downsizing amid West Virginia flood recovery

A July Gazette-Mail investigation of years of FEMA records showed the agency’s rate of declaration approvals slowed significantly and its backlog of declaration requests from states and federally recognized tribes had doubled since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Since then, FEMA has been dogged by layoffs and uncertainty over its long-term future, with Trump calling for a shutdown of the agency — an act that would require legislative action.

A Trump administration workforce reduction program lowered the agency’s employee count by 1,465 as of June 1, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report focused on federal response workforce readiness released in September.

FEMA denied a West Virginia request submitted June 20 for Public Assistance via an Emergency Declaration on July 22, according to a FEMA Daily Operations Briefing. FEMA approved a West Virginia Major Disaster Declaration for Individual Assistance for Marion and Ohio counties the same day, according to FEMA records — 33 days after the Morrisey administration submitted its request.

Drew Galang, Morrisey’s press secretary, has said West Virginia subsequently waited on a federal decision on a request the state submitted for Public Assistance on July 23 as an add-on to its request for a Major Disaster Declaration after a joint review between state and federal partners.

On Sept. 11, 90 days after the June flooding hit northern West Virginia, Morrisey’s once announced Public Assistance had been approved for Marion and Ohio counties.

West Virginia Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Doug Buffington told the Joint Legislative Flooding Committee in October that FEMA set up buildings and security on the ground in response to the February flood in southern West Virginia but didn’t do so following the June flood, resulting in a greater operational burden on state officials.

“So from flood one to flood two, we had to find the building to house FEMA, to house local officials to get information out,” Buffington told the committee at an Oct. 7 meeting. “We had to provide security. We had to put more staffing in there from the state.”

The number of active FEMA employees fell 9.5%, from about 25,800 on Jan. 1 to about 23,350 as of June 1, according to the report, which said FEMA officials reported the agency “now faces significant skills gaps in its leadership cadre.” Officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency also expressed concerns about meeting disaster response mission responsibilities due to workforce reductions, according to the report.

In August, 191 FEMA employees signed a letter to members of the FEMA Review Council, a Trump administration-established body intended to advise the president on FEMA’s ability to address disasters, saying the agency “has been under the leadership of individuals lacking legal qualifications” since January.

In the letter, the employees opposed the Trump administration’s termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which has supported states and local governments in their work to lower hazard risks. The Association of State Floodplain Managers called that move “beyond reckless” in an April statement.

The employees also said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has made it harder for FEMA, which is housed under the department, to perform its missions swiftly by requiring a personal review and approval of all contracts, grants and mission assignments over $100,000.

In response to the employees’ letter, a FEMA spokesperson claimed in an emailed statement that the Trump administration “has made accountability and reform a priority so that taxpayer dollars actually reach the people and communities they are meant to help.”

“Change is always hard,” the spokesperson said.

Last month, David Richardson resigned as FEMA acting administrator after facing heavy criticism over the agency’s disaster oversight.

New regional coalition urges stronger flood relief measures

Last week, the newly formed Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition held a webinar that highlighted its legislative priorities. The coalition has been formed by largely regional nonprofits, led by the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, a nonprofit law firm that focuses on mine safety and environmental protection, and ReImagine Appalachia, itself a coalition of community and environmental groups.

The Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition has urged that Congress reinstate the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and appropriate more funding for it.

The coalition wants a 25% local match requirement for FEMA Public Assistance funds to be eliminated or reduced for economically disadvantaged communities and permanently authorize Community Development Block Grant funds for disaster recovery.

The coalition also has endorsed requiring federal disaster recovery programs to explicitly include funding for private bridge repair and reconstructing bridges to higher flood resilience standards.

Spokespeople for Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice, all R-W.Va., did not respond to requests for comment on calls for eliminating or reducing Public Assistance matching requirements for economically distressed communities and making permanent private road and bridge repairs to restore residential access an allowable use of FEMA Public Assistance funding.

DOT head backs providing funding for private bridge repair

The Legislature has yet to direct any money to the Flood Resiliency Trust Fund created in 2023 via that year’s Senate Bill 677 to prioritize nature-based flood protection and prevention solutions for low-income areas. SB 677 listed a $40 million potential — but not required — allocation for the trust fund.

West Virginia suffered 380 flash flood events from 2019 through 2023, according to a Gazette-Mail review of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data — an average of one in every 4.8 days.

Those flash flood events marked a 26% increase over the 301 the NOAA recorded in the previous five-year span, a 51% climb over the 252 recorded from the five-year span before that and a 169% rise from the 141 recorded from 2004 through 2008.

Testifying before the Joint Legislative Flooding Committee Tuesday, Rumbaugh echoed the Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition call for flood-damaged road repair reform.

Rumbaugh said funding to help West Virginians replace private bridges for which they’re responsible would provide critical support.

Rumbaugh observed that West Virginia’s terrain commonly consists of houses “thrown on the sides” located “somewhere in there” among hillsides, railroad tracks and creeks.

“When it floods, it takes everything out,” Rumbaugh said. “[Residents] can't afford or do not recoup enough funds in order to replace those [private bridges]. And while I would like to be able to step in and help them, I already have over 8,000 bridges I’m responsible for, and if we were to take those in, it would probably jump up to 30,000 bridges.”

Rumbaugh suggested that's where state legislators can come in.

“I just think if there was some mechanism to help supplement what funding they do not get from the federal government,” Rumbaugh said, “it would help get [those] accesses to the residents and make life a lot better for them a lot quicker.”