By: Lydia Crawley
CHARLESTON – Governor Patrick Morrisey announced Friday, August 14, the State of Emergency will be extended for 12 counties across the State, including Tucker, following the severe storms and flooding that have impacted the State beginning in mid-July. The extension will remain in effect until September 19th.
“West Virginians have made tremendous progress cleaning up and recovering from these storms, but there is still a lot of work ahead in some of our hardest-hit communities,” said Governor Morrisey. “This extension ensures our state and local partners have the flexibility and resources they need to rebuild and recover.”
The extension was requested by a number of local officials. By keeping the State of Emergency in place, state and local officials are provided with additional flexibility to respond quickly with recovery needs and provide communities with the assistance they need, the Governor’s Office said.
A State of Preparedness for all 55 counties in the State was announced on July 21 by the Governor as severe storms ravaged West Virginia. A Statewide State of Emergency was later declared that same evening as the storms brought damaging winds, torrential rainfall, flash flooding and landslides that damaged homes, businesses, public infrastructure and essential services across the state.
Since then, state and local agencies, emergency responders, the West Virginia National Guard, volunteers and community organizations have worked to remove debris, restore areas, assist displaced residents and support recovery efforts in affected areas.
Even though substantial progress has been made, emergency operations remain ongoing in the counties covered by the extension, leaving residents and communities to face impacts to homes, businesses, infrastructure and critical services that will require additional recovery work in the future.
This extension will allow state and local agencies to continue coordinating personnel, equipment and other resources necessary to support relief and recovery operations in the affected counties, the Governor’s Office said.
Besides Tucker, the extension applies to: Barbour, Doddridge, Harrison, Lewis, Pendleton, Pleasants, Randolph, Ritchie, Tyler, Upshur, and Wetzel counties and will remain in effect through September 19 as recovery operations and damage assessments continue in those counties. The State of Emergency for the remaining 43 counties will expire August 20 as scheduled.
