Teresa Vandyke returned my call & we spoke for approximately 30 minutes about the many concerns facing us all with flood damage. She began telling me that she was in the area Thursday and did what she called an eyeball approach to properties affected. By this, she explained that she did not talk with each and every individual or walk around accessing each property, she looked and made notes of damaged bridges, buildings, garages, yards, vehicles, and homes. She made notes as to how high the water had gotten on peoples homes and properties. She counted over 50 bridges were completely gone or damaged, 20 plus vehicles with damage, 22 with minor home damaged and 9 with major home damaged. Teresa told me that she called in the request for State of Emergency. She reported that there are still areas that are NOT accessable for her to even look at and was told by the state that those numbers are not enough for assistance! She said that the Red Cross is working on going door to door getting information and collecting numbers of people with property damage, their numbers are lower than hers! She said she immediately called in and requested help from Red Cross and WV VOAD (which I must say - both those support systems have been extremely appreciated & helpful!). Teresa told me that the state does not consider vehicles or mud and debri or damage to bridges or completely loss of bridges a concern to receive assistance. The National Guard has been requested but will only be here for a few days since the need is said to be not so great! Also, as of now, there are NO plans for an area set up for dumping of debri of any type. It will be up to each of us to contact our local garbage company to get things picked up. So, Joseph Osborne better get ya garbage truck ready!! She continued to tell me that she is continuing to try and get assistance, she did not know that there are still areas without land line phones... so please if you need to report damages especially inside your home please do so. She said the states considers damage to 100 homes being in need of state assistance. I said I am outraged that because we are Small in numbers that We DONT count! Its sad that there has to be 100 families lives disrupted before help can be received... one last note... rain in the forecast for tomorrow :(
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 14:22:23 +0000
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