23 Died In WV In 2016 In 1,000-Year Floods; "Resiliency Office" Created In Response Has 1 Employee

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But the event that began in late June 2016 was different. Torrential rain hammered southern West Virginia. In some places, more than 10 inches fell, much in just 12 to 18 hours. In the first paragraph of the executive summary of a study conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, on lessons learned from the 2016 floods, the agency states that while many residents felt the flooding was as bad as it could get, that’s not true. “In fact, this type of event could happen more frequently than previously thought,” it states.

Following the 2016 floods, the West Virginia Legislature took proactive steps to address flood risk. It passed House Bill 2935, which created a joint legislative committee to address flooding and created a new state office dedicated to boosting resilience.

According to the bill, the stated goal of the newly-created State Resiliency Office was to coordinate “all economic and community resiliency planning and implementation efforts, including but not limited to flood protection programs and activities in the state.” That included updating the state’s flood protection plan “no less than biannually” and recommending legislation to reduce or mitigate flood damage. In short, the State Resiliency Office and its board were supposed to be the state’s one-stop-shop for making communities better able to withstand catastrophic flooding.

Today, the office is barely functional. It has one employee. State lawmakers are proposing new legislation to reshape its structure. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, despite having three meetings in 2017 to stand up the agency, in June 2018 the State Resiliency Office was told to disband further activities by the state Department of Commerce under which it is currently situated. The West Virginia Department of Commerce did not make someone available to speak about the State Resiliency Office despite multiple interview requests.

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https://ohiovalleyresource.org/2020/01/27/after-deadly-floods-west-virginia-created-a-resiliency-office-its-barely-functioning/