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West Virginia flood committee hears issues with FEMA assistance denials

CHARLESTON — Lawmakers Sunday asked West Virginia’s emergency planners why the nation’s disaster recovery agency was starting to deny requests for flood recovery dollars.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding met Sunday afternoon on the first day of January legislative interim meetings proceeding the start of the 2023 legislative session Wednesday, Jan. 11.

The committee heard a presentation from G.E. McCabe, executive director of the West Virginia Emergency Management Division, regarding recent denials of public assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Kanawha County was denied FEMA public assistance at the end of November for flood damages from August while public assistance was granted for Fayette and McDowell counties. Cabell, Putnam and Roane counties were denied FEMA public assistance in July for flood damages from May flooding.

FEMA bases its decisions to grant public assistance and individual assistance on damage thresholds. McCabe said the threshold totals change annually every October. State EMD officials begin damage assessments as soon as the Governor declares a state of emergency and a county requests assistance from the state.

“The threshold is what FEMA looks at when we send this information in,” McCabe said.

A state application for public assistance must meet a threshold of $3.2 million, while county thresholds range based on the population size of the county, from more than $23,000 for Wirt County all the way up to more than $802,000 for Kanawha County. McCabe said the thresholds increase every year.

State officials are trying to get answers from FEMA on why the thresholds and indicators are different between the county and state. McCabe said the state and county thresholds are based on per-person indicators. The state indicator is $1.77 per person, while the county indicator is $4.44 per person.

“It’s been on a gradual incline from 2004,” McCabe said. “One of the things I have requested from FEMA that I have not got back yet is why there is a difference between the county indicator and the state indicator.”

In Kanawha County, the validated amount of damage was $290,648 — well below the county threshold. However, Aug. 15 floods did meet the state threshold when combined with flood damage from Fayette and McDowell counties. County thresholds were met for flood events in July and August, but flood damage did not meet the state threshold when submitted as individual events. When submitted as one event, they did meet the state threshold.

There are a number of hoops to jump through to qualify for FEMA public assistance. Flood events must meet both county and state thresholds to qualify for FEMA public assistance. Storms with gaps of more than 72 hours between storms are considered separate disaster events. And road damage cannot be included in the threshold totals.

“I’m not sure why they do this with the counties, because we have to meet both thresholds and it just makes it harder for the counties to meet that county threshold,” McCabe said. “It could knock some counties out. If they don’t meet that county threshold, it can knock them out even if they do hit that state threshold.”

McCabe said the denied FEMA public assistance requests are being appealed.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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