BY JOHN CONLEY

Associate Editor

Temporary housing for flood victims is the biggest issue remaining in dealing with the aftermath of May's disaster, according to Wyoming County Emergency Services Director Dean Meadows.

"We're trying to establish a place for temporary mobile home parks," he said.

Meadows, who estimated that 40 to 50 people—mostly from the Hanover area— will need such housing, says he hopes sites will be identified by some time this week.

Over all, he observed, the flood recovery "is moving along. FEMA is doing a good job of getting people help."

The Department of Environmental Protection's REAP program will be providing assistance with cleaning streams, Meadows noted.

"They don't do blockages," he pointed out. "They will clean debris from the river banks and the trees, and I'm real pleased about that."

The West Virginia Conservation Agency will handle blockages in cases where a stream is 75 percent or more blocked, he said,

Meadows hopes residents with private culverts and bridges will go about replacing them in the proper way.

"I'd like to stress to those folks that they make sure they put them back in using proper guidelnes, so they won't have to face having them washed out again in the future," he remarked.

Over 50 private bridges were washed out in Wyoming County alone, he indicated.

The Wyoming County Commission has waived building permit fees for residents who were flooded, but permits are still required. The waiver is in effect until Dec. 31.

The deadline for dumping flood debris at the Lizzard Creek Park site at Hanover ended on June 10. The Mullens and Pineville sites had already been closed.

At last Wednesday's county commission meeting, Meadows noted that any applications for Hazard Mitigation should be as strong as possible, backed by a thorough "cost benefit analysis."

Hazard Mitigation is a federal buyout program for properties which are at high risk for repeat flooding (or other disasters).

Highways

Several repair projects on Hanover area roads are going to contract, according to Division of Highways Supervisor Oliver Stewart.

“U.S. 52 is pretty good, and West Virginia Paving started on 97 (Monday),” he commented.

Over 20 flood-related contracts will be let in District 10 (which includes Wyoming County), according to Stewart.

Once contracts are let, works begins within a week, he said..

“Those bidding on pre-approved contracts have done work for the state before,” he stated.

Damage to county roads and bridges surpassed $5 million.