Flooding engulfing parts of Glenwood Recreational Park near Princeton, W.Va., was just one example of the widespread impact of a February 2025 storm. (Greg Jordan | Bluefield Daily Telegraph)
Individuals in four West Virginia counties were approved Wednesday to receive federal grants to help them recover from devastating flooding that hit the state’s southern coalfields earlier this month, according to multiple announcements.
The aid — managed and disbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through its Individual Assistance Program — will provide federal funding to individuals affected by the floods in McDowell, Mercer, Mingo and Wyoming counties.
The money can be used to cover costs of temporary housing for those displaced by the floods and home repairs for those who had their houses damaged, among other things. Low-cost loans will be made available to cover losses not covered by insurance and, according to a news release from FEMA, other programs could be opened to help individuals and business owners throughout recovery.
Statewide, only 1.2% of residential structures in West Virginia were insured for flood damage through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program in 2024, according to data from the federal agency. That data does not include residential structures covered through private insurance.
In 2018, FEMA estimated that 12% of structures in the state located in “Special Flood Hazard Areas” carried any form of flood insurance coverage. That was less than half the national average of 30%, per FEMA.
While the individual assistance was approved, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a news release that his request for aid through FEMA’s Public Assistance Program was still under review.
Wednesday’s approval of the federal disaster declaration came more than a week after Morrisey officially requested aid from the federal government. It was also a week after a similar request for federal assistance was approved for 10 counties in Kentucky, where the same storms barreled through communities, destroying homes and taking multiple lives.
A representative for FEMA said that while Kentucky and West Virginia’s requests were the result of the same storm, “every request is unique to the impacts and capabilities of the requesting state.” The starkest difference in those requests, according to FEMA, was that Kentucky put in for an expedited major disaster declaration.
“Expedited disaster declarations are generally limited to what would address immediate needs based on rapid assessments until Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs) are completed and the full severity and magnitude of the event can be validated,” a spokesperson for FEMA wrote in an email response to West Virginia Watch before Wednesday’s federal declaration was approved.
West Virginia, comparatively, requested a non-expedited major disaster declaration, opting to use and rely on the state’s own resources for immediate response efforts. Over the last week, the spokesperson for FEMA continued, the state and federal agency were working together to complete Joint PDAs. Those assessments will be used to validate damages reported by individuals and “determine the extent of the impact and the state’s capacity to respond.”
The major disaster declaration also came after West Virginia’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to the Trump administration urging approval for Morrisey’s request. On Wednesday, the federal lawmakers lauded the good news.
“We are grateful for the efforts and service of Gov. Morrisey, local leaders, neighbors, first responders, and the West Virginia National Guardsmen who sprang into action when these storms struck,” the delegation wrote in a statement Wednesday. “The Trump administration’s approval of our state’s request for federal disaster aid is welcome news for communities in McDowell, Mercer, Mingo and Wyoming counties as they work to recover and rebuild following these devastating storms, and we are glad that help will soon be on the way to southern West Virginia.”
President Donald Trump’s approval of the major disaster declaration will, in addition to individual assistance, provide resources for all West Virginia counties to participate in hazard mitigation planning in hopes of minimizing potential damage from future flooding events.
That federal support and aid for prevention could prove critical in West Virginia, where lawmakers have repeatedly failed to allocate money to a state fund created in 2023 to help protect communities — specifically those in low-income areas — from disastrous and deadly flooding.
The counties that make up West Virginia’s southern coalfields are some of the poorest in the nation, according to U.S. Census data.
As the threat of climate change continues to grow — bringing with it more severe weather occurrences — residents in the state’s southern coalfields will be at higher risk of repeated major flooding events.
According to a 2023 report by researchers at West Virginia University, 94% of West Virginia communities are considered “Special Flood Hazard Areas,” meaning they are at high risk of flooding. More than 84,000 structures are in those areas.
The coalfield counties — McDowell, Mingo, Logan, Lincoln, Boone and Wyoming — hold the highest percentage of all counties with buildings located in high-risk floodplains. A majority of those buildings, per that report, are residential.
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