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March 16, 2010

Officials tour flood-ravaged areas, will deliver report to Manchin

Anonymous The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Tue Mar 16, 2010, 05:00 AM EDT

By CHARLES OWENS

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Federal help could soon be on the way for several flood-ravaged communities in southern West Virginia.

As soon as damage assessments from Mercer, Raleigh, Fayette, Greenbrier and several other counties are completed, the information will be forwarded to Gov. Joe Manchin, who will request a federal disaster declaration from President Barack Obama, state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Jimmy Joe Gianato said Monday.

“As soon as the information is in, the governor will make his request,” Gianato said. “Raleigh is really bad, Mercer has considerable damage, and Fayette is reporting considerable damage as well as Greenbrier.”

Many in the region were still struggling to recover Monday from the widespread weekend flooding.

“The bank of the river is now in my yard,” Angel Latuzarra of the Pleasant Hill Road community, near Kellysville, said. “The creek has risen. It’s just a nightmare. The only way to fix it would be to dredge it. I’ve contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”

Latuzarra met Monday morning with damage assessment crews as they toured the Kellysville and Oakville communities.

“We’ve got one of the rooms completely flooded, and some of the rooms got a little bit of water in them,” Latuzarra said. “Water was literally surrounding the house. It’s pretty flat land, so the water went upland, and actually went back around the house.”

Gianato said officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency are still in Mercer County assessing the damage.

“I toured the county with Tim Farley, the county emergency services director,” Gianato said. “We looked at areas in various parts of the county. We were able to look at some of the highway damage, as well as homes that were damaged. We currently have FEMA damage assessment teams out there to see if there is enough damage. We feel like there is plenty of damage.”

Gianato said McDowell County was largely spared flooding damage from the weekend storm. Emergency officials in neighboring Tazewell County also reported only minor damage Monday, including flooding to the transfer station site in the Falls Mills community.

Farley said a hotline has been set up for citizens in Mercer County to report damage to residential and commercial structures. The number is (304) 487-8448.

“What they (property owners with flood damage) need to do is just leave their name, telephone number and possibly an address and we will try to get the folks out there to do some assessment,” Farley said.

Farley said some of the worse hit areas of Mercer County included Kellysville, Oakvale, Green Valley, Montcalm, Lake Shawnee, Oakvale and Kellsyville. Flood damage also was reported in Princeton.

“I talked to City Manager Wayne Shumate this morning to see if he had any estimates of damage from the city,” Farley said. “He was still working to come up with (the figures) this morning. But they know the Princeton Junior High School had damage to the school, and there were some businesses along Courthouse Road that had flood water in them, and some damage on Rogers Street to businesses down there.”

Farley said overall there appeared to be more residential property damage in Mercer County as opposed to damage to commercial structures.

“It will take most of the week to come up with the damage assessments,” Farley added.

The Mercer County Health Department also reminded citizens Monday not to drink water from wells that have been contaminated by flood waters until the wells have been disinfected and determined as safe to consume.

The health department also is asking that anyone cleaning up previously flooded areas wear protective clothing, gloves and masks when cleaning, and to wash their hands and other exposed areas often with soap and hot water especially before eating. If you suffer a scratch or wound while cleaning, you should also disinfect and dress the wound, and contact your physician or the health department for tetanus shot recommendations, according to a health department press release.

Families also are reminded to dispose of any food that may been breached by flood waters.

– Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com