The State of West Virginia and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Joint Field Office in Charleston, WV will close January 22, 2016. For the past ten months the state and FEMA have been working closely to support the recovery from the 2015 spring and summer storms that impacted all 55 of West Virginia’s counties, some multiple times.
A Joint Field Office is closed when most of its work is completed. The federal work is then transitioned to the regional FEMA office, located in Philadelphia, PA. FEMA officials will continue to work closely with state personnel to close out major projects over the next few years.
“The State of West Virginia will be communicating and working with FEMA to ensure assistance to the counties continues smoothly. We have had exceptional coordination and cooperation with FEMA in managing these five events.” said West Virginia’s State Coordinating Officer Jimmy Gianato. “Over the past year the Joint Field Office has allowed us to make substantial progress in the recovery from the five disasters that impacted our state and we will continue to move forward in our recovery.”
To date, FEMA, through its Public Assistance program, has obligated $78 million in assistance to the state, local governments and eligible non-profit agencies. Many of the projects involve the reconstruction of public buildings, roads and bridges.
Following a disaster there is a focus on mitigation actions when restoring damaged infrastructure, when cost effective, so the repaired facility is better able to withstand future disaster damage. So far, the state and FEMA officials have identified 585 mitigation projects from 1,250 infrastructure projects.
For additional information visit www.fema.gov/states/west-virginia or www.dhsem.wv.gov