There’s still no word on whether flood survivors in southwest Virginia will get help from Federal Emergency Management Agency. This comes just after hundreds of workers from that agency were unexpectedly fired, due to cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency, according to the Associated Press.
Candy Burgess was cooking dinner in the home she shared with her 91-year-old husband in Grundy, when floodwaters reached their house. She turned off the oven for the meatloaf, and her son-in-law carried her husband out their front door. They tried to get to a hotel, but roads were flooded. They spent that night in their car, outside a funeral home.
“It’s sad because you don’t know what you’re gonna do the next minute, and what’s gonna happen to you, you know?” Burgess said.
She and her husband are now staying with her daughter in Kentucky. Burgess’ husband has several health conditions, including dementia.
His hospital bed was destroyed, as were most of their possessions.
“You know, he’ll say, ‘I want to go to the house,’” Burgess said. “He wants his fishing poles. He wants his stuff. But his stuff is gone. I just don’t know what to do.”
The Red Cross did help cover some of the damage, but Burgess said the house they were renting won’t be habitable anytime soon.
“My daughter had me walk in it one day. And my heart, just…I just cried,” Burgess recalled.
More than three weeks ago, on Feb 16, Governor Glenn Youngkin asked for an expedited major disaster declaration for the area of Virginia where Burgess lived. The requested declaration lists flooding, severe storms, tornado, and winter storms that impacted the commonwealth beginning Feb.10.
According to a spokesperson with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, preliminary residential damage assessments by state and federal officials have been filed estimate 90 homes had major damage and 18 were destroyed. Most of the destroyed homes were in Buchanan County.
President Trump still has not granted the major disaster declaration for Virginia, which would allow residents able to file for individual assistance claims. The president did approve a similar declaration for Kentucky and West Virginia, which were also affected by flooding and winter storms in February. According to VDEM, three deaths in Virginia occurred during the storms February 15-17, and these were confirmed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Another person was killed due to winter weather on Feb. 19-20.
On Feb. 26, Youngkin submitted an add-on to the declaration, requesting an additional eight counties in the declaration. Last week, Congressman Morgan Griffith, and Senators Kaine and Warner sent a letter to Trump, urging him to approve the declaration. There still is no word from the president, and a spokesperson for FEMA says they don’t have a timeline for when a decision might be issued.
