Harrison County State of Emergency Extended Through Sept. 19 as Flood Recovery Continues
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Harrison County will remain under a state of emergency through Sept. 19 as recovery work continues following the severe storms and flooding that struck West Virginia beginning July 21.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Friday that Harrison is one of 12 counties where the emergency declaration will be extended. The statewide declaration will expire as scheduled on Aug. 20 for the remaining 43 counties.
The extension applies to Barbour, Doddridge, Harrison, Lewis, Pendleton, Pleasants, Randolph, Ritchie, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur and Wetzel counties. Recovery operations and damage assessments remain underway in those areas.
“West Virginians have made tremendous progress cleaning up and recovering from these storms, but there is still a lot of work ahead in some of our hardest-hit communities,” Morrisey said. “This extension ensures our state and local partners have the flexibility and resources they need to rebuild and recover.”
According to the Governor’s Office, local officials in a number of the affected counties requested that the emergency declaration remain in place. Maintaining emergency status gives state and local officials additional flexibility to respond to recovery needs and coordinate personnel, equipment and other resources.
Morrisey initially declared a State of Preparedness for all 55 West Virginia counties on July 21 as severe weather approached the state. A statewide State of Emergency followed later that evening as storms produced damaging winds, heavy rainfall, flash flooding and landslides.
The storms damaged homes, businesses, public infrastructure and essential services across portions of West Virginia. Since then, state and local agencies, emergency responders, the West Virginia National Guard, volunteers and community organizations have participated in debris removal, cleanup and other recovery efforts.
While the emergency declaration will soon end across most of West Virginia, its extension in Harrison County and 11 other counties reflects recovery work that remains underway more than three weeks after the storms.
