RICHLANDS, Va. -In response to the flooding that devastated much of our area, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) is traveling across Virginia to see some of the places most affected, stopping in Tazewell County on Monday.
At the Richlands Police Department, Sen. Warner sat down with local leaders from across the county and members of the community who are still hurting after the combined impact of Hurricane Helene and the February flooding.
He says, while Virginia has already been approved for public assistance, residents are not yet eligible for the federal government’s individual assistance, something already approved for Kentucky and West Virginia.
“Well listen, your heart breaks. You see folks who’ve lived in the community for decades… paid their taxes, worked hard, and then, everything’s swept away in a storm, and, you know, this is not charity; this is why you pay taxes, this is why we’ve got to get these folks the federal and state assistance they deserve,” says Sen. Warner.
However, efforts are being made to bring funding here as well, with the focus of this meeting being individual assistance for those currently affected and money to fuel efforts to prevent this level of devastation from happening again in the future, something the Tazewell Co. administrator, Eric Young, says is encouraging, adding destructive flooding has become “all too frequent” and “increasingly severe” for the county.
Both he and the mayor of Richlands, Rod Cury, had positive things to say about the visit and expect it to lead to more.
“Based on the reports that we’re getting from our county and especially… the state, and then the Federal Government, I’m optimistic that things will improve,” says Mayor Cury.
“I’m optimistic about the money, but I’m also optimistic about the speed. There are a lot of bureaucratic processes that you have to go through to get some of this money, but we’ve been given some encouraging indications on the state and federal level that they’re going to help us wade through that and try to expedite some of this assistance,” says Young.
Senator Warner says the hope is that Virginia will be able to add federal funds to its state funding to repair flood damage. And, with the debris from Hurricane Helene potentially adding to the damage from the February floods, he hopes to secure hurricane relief to help Virginia as well.
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