Deadly flooding in West Virginia finds prevention plans unaddressed

At least two West Virginians are dead, dozens of homes are damaged and communities across north central West Virginia are left picking up the pieces in the wake of another major flood. Just a decade ago, a massive flood prompted state officials to dive into state coffers for relief money and set up an office dedicated to softening the blow of future floods. The flood of 2016 affected a wider area of the state and took nearly two dozen lives.

Brendan Muckian-Bates, a policy advocate for the Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition, pointed to recent funding for the state’s Flood Resiliency Office as a small step in the right direction toward making strides in reducing the likelihood and impact of flooding. And more needs to be studied regarding the latest floods in north central West Virginia, particularly around Lewis and Upshur counties, which bore the brunt of the storm. “A lot of the helpful recommendations included in the State Resiliency Plan are unfunded and act more as recommendations rather than policy,” Muckian-Bates said.

The Flood Resiliency Office was the brainchild of the late House Speaker Tim Armstead, whose own community was severely impacted by flooding in 2016. The purpose of the office was to update and oversee implementation of a flood plan officials wrote in 2004 and left to collect dust on a shelf. Like the flood plan, the Flood Resiliency Office languished for nearly a decade without its own dedicated funding.

In 2025, after floods devastated McDowell County, House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, tried to force through a $50 million package from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to fund the office. The Republican Supermajority resoundingly rejected it. But in the 2026 session, Hornbuckle, working with the Republicans, was able to get $5 million for the office.

“We know that’s a drop in the bucket to speak to the issues that we have from an infrastructure standpoint to be better prepared for these emergencies,” Hornbuckle said. Floods don’t care if you’re red, if you’re blue, if you’re straight, if you’re gay. And so, are we prioritizing the people of West Virginia?” Since officials penned the original flood mitigation plan, the threat of flooding has increased in the state, as storms becom…