Raleigh County Emergency Officials Evaluate Recovery Efforts - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

Raleigh County Emergency Officials Evaluate Storm Recovery Efforts

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By Courtney Clark, Evening Anchor/Reporter - email

It has been exactly two weeks since that summer storm wreaked havoc in southern West Virginia, and emergency officials in Raleigh County are evaluating their recovery efforts.

During the first day, approximately 95 percent of people in Raleigh County were without power.

Emergency Manager Mark Wilson said for those first few days, they survived on cooperation and local resources.

All emergency agencies were running on generators, and he said there was a great delay in getting supplies into the county.

"There's room for improvement on the state level in responding to this," Wilson said. "We didn't get our first resources for five days."

He said the Salvation Army in Beckley went above and beyond their call.

Wilson adds that FEMA is in the area, but they are collecting data for a national declaration.

There's no FEMA relief or individual assistance available at this time.

Emergency officials plan to meet again in the coming days to work on ways to improve locally and how to expand their resources.