BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – After initially appearing to downplay the severity of the storm’s impact in Mercer County, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency 5 days after the event.
A day after the declaration, Mercer County’s emergency management director says this critical step now opens the door for the county to possibly receive funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Now we start having to meet certain thresholds in terms of a dollar value of loss so the governor then can take that state of emergency declaration and forward that to the federal government and ultimately to the desk of the president of the United States to have Mercer County declared as a federal disaster,” said Gunnoe.
Gunnoe says it is imperative everyone feeling an impact from the severe weather last week, especially damage, fill out the storm damage assessment.
“We have damage assessment teams from the state of West Virginia coming to Mercer County in the morning. There will be three teams out with county employees, myself included that will be traveling around our county to start documenting and helping people with these surveys and documenting damage,” said Gunnoe.
Mercer County Delegate, Doug Smith says no individual assistance from the state will be coming to the area as a result of the state of emergency declaration but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
“Any other state support that would be needed down in this area has to be requested from the county. I just talked to them (state leaders) about five minutes ago and they say they have not seen any requests from the county for any kind of state assistance,” said Smith.
Mercer County Commissioner Greg Puckett says the county is in the early stages of putting together a request for fiscal help from the state, but right now they’re gathering all the information they need to make a successful pitch for that assistance. It’s an unfamiliar process and they want to get it right.
There are still a number of areas for storm victims to find local assistance. The Princeton Walmart has free showers and laundry units available. Food is available at both the Montcalm and Matoaka Volunteer Fire Departments daily at noon.
A water tanker has been positioned at the grants supermarket in Bluewell. The city of Bluefield is also helping it’s residents meet their needs for meals, as well as providing a location for some storm debris. The city manager says marshalling these resources is part of the job.
“That’s why they pay me and that’s what they expect of us to do all this work and that’s the way all our team feels. I want the public to know too that 100% of the workforce here is just like you,” said Marson.
“We live in this area so a lot of them come in everyday without power in their homes and issues at their houses too. No one has not come back to work the next day to try and help some.”
If you need to fill out the storm damage survey you can do so by going here.
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