On the afternoon of June 19th, 2020, the town of Alderson, West Virginia and surrounding areas received more than two inches of rain in a forty-five-minute period on already saturated ground and swollen waterways. This rainfall event caused a flash flood that impacted more than 85 properties and damaged public infrastructure in Greenbrier and Monroe Counties in southeastern West Virginia.
In order for a disaster in West Virginia to qualify for Public Assistance and Individual Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state officials must be able to demonstrate damages to state property in excess of $2.8 million dollars. Unfortunately, damages from this disaster amount to approximately $914,000, falling almost $2 million dollars short of that threshold.
GGLTRC is working closely with the Town of Alderson and local emergency management offices to make up the deficit left by a lack of state and federal resources for recovery from this localized disaster. Since June 23rd, four years to the day since the last devastating flooding event in Alderson, volunteers have been working to restore the Gem in the Hills.
If you or your organization would like to volunteer with ongoing disaster recovery efforts in Alderson, click here.