Youngkin is seeking another federal disaster declaration for Virginia
TAZEWELL, Va. — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is seeking a second federal disaster declaration for Southwest Virginia.
The Republican governor said Monday he is asking President Donald Trump to approve an Expedited Major Disaster Declaration in response to the recent February winter storms and now the weekend flooding event that impacted parts of the state, including the Southwest Virginia region in particular.
Youngkin said the weekend storm is the fifth significant flood to impact the state in five years.
'Over the past week, the Commonwealth has been hit extremely hard, particularly in areas that are still recovering from Hurricane Helene,' Youngkin. 'This is the fifth major flood in this area in the past five years and there is significant damage that is affecting community lifelines. It is critical that we provide relief, and we will certainly take every measure possible to ensure that these areas are able to make a full recovery as quickly as possible'
Youngkin said there were 150 swift water rescues across the state during the weekend flood with more than 7 inches of rain falling in parts of Southwest Virginia. This resulted in significant infrastructure damage, over 203,000 customers losing electricity at the peak of the storm, more than 270 road closures including low water bridge and road washouts, and 9-1-1 center outages, according to the governor's office.
The towns of Grundy and Hurley in Buchanan County experienced catastrophic flooding, with the river gauges in these towns reaching historical flood levels, according to Youngkin.
Delegate James. W. 'Will' Morefield, R-Tazewell, said all available state resources would be utilized to assist with the latest flood recovery effort.
'It is heartbreaking to see our region once again devastated by flooding,' Morefield said. 'All state resources have been made available to help assist local EMS responders. We have been in constant contact with the governor, state agencies, and local officials. I want everyone to be assured that we will make every effort to help those impacted by the recent flooding just as we did for the flood victims in previous years.'
Morefield said the recovery will be painful and will take time.
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