Flood recovery efforts in Buchanan County will get a $100,000 boost from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The funds, announced Thursday by the offices of U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, will pay for an additional case manager to coordinate aid for residents of the Whitewood area of the county, which was devastated by a flash flood in July, according to United Way of Southwest Virginia.
The money will fund the position for 12 to 18 months.
The flood that hit Whitewood destroyed almost three dozen homes and damaged scores more. The rebuilding is underway but has relied primarily on private donations and volunteers. To date, $748,622 in donations has been earmarked for Whitewood’s recovery, according to United Way’s online dashboard.
More than 300 requests for help have come in from residents, and a local team of government and nonprofit representatives – including a case worker from the Buchanan County Department of Social Services – has coordinated relief efforts. The addition of another case worker will ease some of the load on that team, which is also still dealing with the aftermath of a similar flood that inundated the Buchanan County community of Hurley just a year earlier.
Kaine and Warner also announced Thursday that $582,479 in ARC funding will go to Carroll County to install 8.2 miles of fiber to expand wireless broadband and fiber to 402 households that currently do not have high-speed internet.
The Appalachian Regional Commission is an economic development partnership among the federal government and 13 state governments across Appalachia.