HARMAN, W.Va. –
Response efforts continued today for the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (WVDHSEM) and the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) in Eastern West Virginia for areas impacted by heavy rainfall and flooding on Sunday, June 30, 2019.
The WVNG had 12 Soldiers on the ground today on State Active Duty providing initial damage and needs assessments with local emergency management and county leaders as well as debris removal at the Harman K-12 school.
Additional requests for assistance from the WVNG are being coordinated, which include two water buffalos, one loader dump team and one light medium tactical vehicle (LMTV), which will be on the ground in Randolph County within 24 hours. An additional six Soldiers will assist in the operation of the loader dump team and LMTV for debris removal.
WVDHSEM also sent three teams to the affected region today to view the impacts and assess damages in the impacted areas. Director Mike Todorovich believes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending damage assessment teams in the coming days to determine if the threshold for a federal disaster declaration has been met in the affected counties.
“I commend the work and coordination between all local, county and state responders, to include our Emergency Managers, Division of Highways personnel, National Guard Soldiers, and the community members who are responding to this flooding incident,” stated Mike Todorovich, Director of WVDHSEM. “We continue to maintain contact with all county liaisons and emergency managers and are here to help until the very end.”