Dec. 19—While a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center is now open to assist residents of Mercer County, state officials in neighboring Virginia are still seeking additional help for local residents impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday proposed a $127 million investment to establish the Disaster Assistance Fund at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Youngkin said the one-time funding will assist with ongoing recovery needs by leveraging existing resources to fill gaps left by federal and private recovery efforts.
Locally, the FEMA recovery center in Tazewell County — one of the hardest-hit counties from the Sept. 27 tropical storm — closed just before Thanksgiving.
Under Youngkin’s proposal, the Disaster Assistance Fund would support life, safety, and housing-related recovery efforts for costs not covered by federal assistance, private donations or insurance. Distributions from the fund would be appropriated by specific legislation.
Youngkin, a Republican, will have to secure the support of the Democrat-controlled Virginia General Assembly to make the assistance fund available. He said Wednesday that legislation to help residents of Southwest Virginia will be presented to General Assembly next year.
“Our fellow Virginians have suffered an unimaginable impact from Hurricane Helene,” Youngkin said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “As we continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners on the path to recovery and rebuilding, the creation of the Disaster Assistance Fund is a critical step toward ensuring the Commonwealth has a reserve fund in place to address unmet needs where they exist in our communities in the wake of natural disasters.”
As currently proposed by the governor’s office, the $127 million investment would include $25 million from the General Fund and $102 million from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative 2023 final payment and interest.
Hurricane Helene caused unprecedented damage across Southwest Virginia with 36 localities heavily impacted. The damage, according to the governor’s office, included: — Over 310,000 Virginians lost power due to severe damage to electric distribution infrastructure. — 484 primary and secondary roads and 118 bridges were closed. — Nearly 10,000 applications for Individual Assistance and 3,000 home inspection requests have been filed with FEMA. A little more than 1,600 of those came from Tazewell County alone. — Agriculture suffered $630 million in direct and future financial impacts, affecting nearly 3,700 farms. — Tourism was heavily disrupted, including catastrophic damage to the Virginia Creeper Trail.
In neighboring West Virginia — also hard hit by the remnants of the tropical storm in late September — both a FEMA Recovery Center and a SBA Recovery Center — are now open in Mercer County.
The SBA’s Business Recovery Center in Mercer County is located at the Princeton Public Library at 920 Mercer Street. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The center is closed Sunday.
People seeking SBA assistance can also go to the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center, Watson said. This center is located at 194 Robins Rest Road in Bluefield next door to the Mercer Mall.
— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens
— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens