As state and federal relief programs begin winding down, people from counties that were hit hardest by the June floods are beginning to prepare for the long-term recovery process.
In Greenbrier County, the county arguably hit hardest by the floods, the community has already set up the Greater Greenbrier Long Term Recovery Committee (LTRC), an organization designed to coordinate volunteer efforts from non-profits, private businesses and faith-based groups.
On Friday, Kanawha County created its own LTRC, followed by Clay County on Saturday.
"After [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] exhausts all their resources and the state exhausts theirs, there is still going to be a need," said Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, who has been helping counties set up the LTRCs.
The purpose of the committee is to connect flood victims with people in the community who can help them.
"It allows us to bring groups together that are all doing great things and it allows us to spread resources rather than duplicate them," said Gen. James Hoyer, the adjutant general of the National Guard.
If someone was able to get some funding from FEMA, but still needed help rebuilding, that person can reach out to West Virginia Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster. WV VOAD would then reach out to the local recovery committee.
The committee could connect the person with a volunteer organization like Habitat for Humanity.
If Habitat for Humanity needed supplies, the committee could help get them from local businesses.
If the victim needed clothes or appliances, the committee could connect him with faith-based groups that made donations.
"We can do this, we've got everything we need," Unger said. "And when we don't have it, we know who to ask."
Unger and Hoyer are trying to expand those long-term efforts in the other counties affected by the floods as well.
In the upcoming weeks, Fayette, Nicholas, Summers and Webster counties will join Kanawha, Clay and Greenbrier in setting up committees.
"People are hungry for it," Unger said. "And it has given them hope, given them a second wind."
Hoyer said LTRCs can last long after the flood recovery is finished and can help towns reinvent themselves.
"It's not just recovery from a flood," Hoyer said, "It's, 'How do we empower ourselves to be something?' "
Unger is hoping that the committees might allow people to learn from skilled laborers that come in, as a way of retraining people who are out of work.
"We're looking at unemployed miners," Unger said. "Reconnecting them in this effort so that we create jobs."
While Unger helps set up committees that will tackle long-term issues, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services will perform health assessments of homes in Greenbrier and Kanawha County hit by the floods.
The assessment will take place in the form of a survey asking about mental and physical health. It will also serve as a way for the DHHR to evaluate their response efforts.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.